Socrates: The Gadfly of Athens

Socrates, perhaps the greatest icon of philosophy, was an Athenian who loved from 470 - 399 B.C. He was, at various times in his life, a soldier, a sculptor, and a philosopher. It is for the last designation for which he is most well-known.

Socrates was probably the one person who most greatly influenced Western thinking. The self-proclaimed gadfly of Athens, Socrates was considered in his time to be a reasonably brilliant, albeit eccentric, man. A thinker in the extreme sense, he was known to stop in his tracks, lost in thought, and not move for hours - sometimes an entire day. While he had the reputation of one who studied philosophy, many in the great city-state did not regard Socrates as a philosopher, oftentimes actually asking him to introduce them to one.

Socrates' unique philosophical path began when one of his friends visited the Oracle of Delphi. The Oracle was upheld in ancient Greece as the servant of the god Apollo, who was also the god of prophecy. Socrates' friend inquired of the Oracle as to who was the wisest man in Greece. The Oracle answered that Socrates was the wisest of all. When word of this reached Socrates, he was bewildered: how could he, who was so often dissatisfied with his own thinking, be the wisest of all? Believing that there was a deeper meaning behind the Oracle's declaration, he made it his personal mission to find someone wiser and better than him.

Socrates made many enemies during his lifetime, primarily because he was prone to humiliate some of the leading men in Athens. In trying to find men who he thought were wiser than him, he inevitably exposed many pretenders to wisdom. The youth of the city were attracted to his endeavor and delighted in seeing the great men of the city demolished in intellectual debate. In this way he made many enemies from all sectors of society. In the end, two of them, Anytus and Meletus, brought charges against him in court. Socrates lost the case, was thrown in prison, and later ordered to drink poison.

Socrates might be a mere footnote in history except for two important events, his tutelage of Plato, and his trial and execution. Plato, who would go on to become the greatest philosopher and academic mind in his time, was profoundly influenced by his brilliant teacher, both in life and in death. Socrates' trial and execution marked the turning point of his life. Turning his back to politics (a path that was open to him because of his nobility), he turned to the study, practice, and teaching of philosophy, eventually establishing the famous Academy, which was to become the premier center of learning in the Hellenic world for a thousand years.