Dr Menahem Luz,
Summary 11
The historical Socrates

almost completed
Summary 12 Plato's Socrates and the Apology
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Contents

1. Biography of Socrates
   • birth
   • family
   • politics
   • trial

2. the Socratic enigma
   • the historical Socrates
   • Socrates in literature
   • Socrates and his pupils
   • Socrates in other sources
   • Scholarly theories

3. Socrates' philosophy
   • A younger Socrates
   • His philosophical career
   • Methodology

4. Summary

5. Modern Philosophers on Socrates

6. Bibliography & Films

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Biography of Socrates

Basic facts

• Birth
  Socrates was born in Athens in the year 469 BC. This means that
  1. he was one of the earliest Athenian born philosophers of note
  2. he was an older contemporary of
     • Democritus (460-370 BC)
     • a younger contemporary of Anaxagoras (500-428) who also worked in Athens
     • as well as of Zeno (495-430)
  3. but his main confrontaion was with his sophist contemporaries
     • the older Protagoras (485-410)
     • and his exact contemporary Prodicus
  4. He grew up under the leadership of Pericles (495-429 BC), saw the foundation of Athenian democracy and its corruption under the demagogues (429-422), its defeat by the Spartans (404 BC) and its collapse under the tyrants (404-403).
     • He was thus critical of the disorganisation of democracy as a system
     • and sometimes contrasted the Spartan system favourably

Family
Anecdotes and ancient biography tell a little of his family and background:

1. His father was Sophroniskos, the sculptor, but sources also assume that Socrates was also trained as a sculptor
   • this may have been an imaginary interpretation of Plato's comparison of Socrates' logic to sculptures bound to their pedestals
2. his mother, Phaenarete, may have been a mid-wife (Meno).
   • but Plato cites this in order to explain Socrates' method of helping others to beget ideas -- and may be not meant literally
3. His wife Xanthippe gave him two sons
   • later anecdote make her a shrew in order to demonstrate Socrates' strength of will
   • likewise they also imagine him with a second wife, Myrto

   Politics

   loyalty
   Although critical of Athenian democracy, he still performed his military and civic duties faithfully

   • he served in the infantry at the battle of Delium in 424 BC when the Athenians were defeated by the Boeotians (Plato Symposium);
   • He took his turn in the town council in 406 BC

   confrontation with the democrats

   • on service in the town council, Socrates had to sit as president on the day that the mob demanded an illegal trial of the ten admirals who abandoned the wounded and drowning at the sea battle of Arginusae (406 BC) (Apology 32)
   • His defence of the law that the admirals each deserved a legal trial was interpreted by the mob as anti-democratic but he stood up for the law in even unpopular decisions.

   confrontation with the oligarchs

   • when the democracy fell in 403 BC, the 30 tyrants who ruled Athens tried to involve him in their illegal acts
     • they ordered him to arrest a rich person illegally but he refused.
     • Plato says that he could as easily have been killed by the tyrants as by the democracy (Apology 32-33 )

   Socrates' trial

   1. On the restoration of democracy, politicians remembered
      • Socrates' criticism of democracy
      • his pupils and friends who were among the tyrants (Critias in 403 BC) or who were traitors (Alcibiades in 415 BC)
      • as well as his opposition to the mob in 406 BC
   2. He was indicted in 399 BC by the democrat politician Anytus and the ultra-religious zealot Meletus (described in Plato's Apology)
   3. because of a general amnesty, no direct charges could be made for involvement with the tyrants or for anti-democratic behaviour. Thus, the official charges were:

      "Meletus son of Meletus of the deme of Pitthos made the following indictment and affidavit against Socrates son of Sophoroniscus from the deme of Alopeke:
      that Socrates is guilty of disbelief in the gods in which the city believes and of introducing other new divinities.
      he is also guilty of corrupting the youth.
      Penalty : death."
      Diogenes Laertius ii. 40 (Life of Socrates)

      Both these charges were based on a partly deliberate misunderstanding of Socrates' philosophy:

      1. that Socrates denied the the state religion
         • confused him with Protagoras and Anaxagoras as part of an attack on free-thinking intelligentia and philosophers
      2. that Socrates corrupted the young with his teaching
         • this confused his teaching with that of the Sophists
         • but implied that he was responsible for Critias and Alcibiades being traitors -- i.e. being anti-democratic
         • it also reminded people that others of his pupils, like Plato, were relatives of leading anti-democrats
         • it ignored the fact that some pupils, like Chaerephon, were exiled by the tyrants and returned with the democrats

   4. He was found guilty and executed by poison in 399 BC -- described in Plato's Phaedo and Xenophon's Memorabilia

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      The Socratic enigma

      • The historical Socrates

        In spite of the wealth of material concerning Socrates in surviving text, much of his own genuine philosophical belief is unknown:

        • Socrates did not compose or leave any written works since his philosophy was imparted orally in conversation
        • Sources agree that he denied that he had any knowledge of his own - or that he had any philosophical to teach

        Thus even if we had a text written by him, its philosophy would be a denial of his own personal knowledge.

        On the other hand, his pupils do describe him attempting to impart philosophy through dialectic by means of:
        i. deduction
        ii. implication
        iii. and example

        • Popular sophists taught inductively by teaching facts requiring memory, and little understanding, but Socrates' method was to assist his conversant in deductive reasoning by requiring his conversant first to understand each stage of the argument and draw its logical implications before moving on to the next stage of the argument
        • furthermore, his conversants were expected to draw the implications of their own premises as a result of Socrates' questioning -- and thus, not as a result of his teaching them directly and inductively
        • Socrates' personal courage and integrity (at Delium, in the council and in prison) taught others intuitively and by personal example
        • most of his dialogues reach no positive solution, but the conversant finally realises that what he thought was true was not true -- and gains self-knowledge of his own limitations

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        Socrates in literature

        Most of Socrates' pupils who discussed his philosophy ascribe to him much more than the above. However, his pupils wrote dialogues with Socrates as a major conversant -- and it is often difficult to distinguish between their own philosophy and that of Socrates'. External sources are more objective. but either were non-philosophical, or did not know him personally

        • Socrates' pupils did not compose written descriptions of Socrates' actual conversations, but re-enactments of his oral dialectic in a written dialogue form -- they thus often resemble literary dramatisations of Socrates' method.
        • Although these literary dramatisations of Socrates' oral dialectic probably preserve arguments used by Socrates in real life, their dramatic background, conversations and characters are more like literary fictions: what the writer imagined Socrates to have said if he had ever met such and such a person at such and such a time.
        • furthermore, Socrates' more original pupils who developed their own philosophy, would use Socrates' character as a mouth-piece for their own ideas
          • often this was done out of respect for Socrates as if to dedicate to him new ideas that they would not have conceived without his personal dialectic
        • this often lead to reconstructions of that side of Socrates that interested each particular pupil
          • since each pupil was interested in a different side of Socrates' philosophy, their reenactments of his oral dialectic are sometimes inconsistent

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        Socrates image among his pupils

        The following pupils knew him personally and wrote 'Socratic' dialogues after his death. Many of them left us mere fragments so that it is sometimes difficult deciding what they expressed through the dramatic figure of Socrates himself.

        1. Socrates' eldest pupil was Antisthenes of Athens (455-365 BC) who must have known Socrates while still in his middle age. The fragments of his dialogues show a simple Socrates interested only in ethical issues. His Socrates believes in the teachability of virtue by means of short ethical speeches, showing that action and example is better than long sophisticated argument. Unlike Plato's dialogues, those of Antisthenes would not have shown Socrates involved in lengthly dialectic. Antisthenes claimed to have learned from Socrates that the simple life was best and especially if unencumbered by luxury.

        2. Plato (428-347 BC) knew Socrates only in the last ten years of Socrates' life although he often imagines him in conversations of his youth and middle-age. Plato recasts Socrates as a universal dialectician, interested in the subjects that most concerned Plato himself: ontology, metaphysics, cognition, politics and the soul. In his earlier dialogues, he perhaps preserves Socrates' dialectic best - that virtue is not taught by rhetorical means, but by Socrates' method of self-knowledge. In his early 'Socratic' dialogues, Plato often has Socrates present an argument for the the unity of virtues -- ie. all the virtues are unified by being types of knowledge and understanding.

        3. The ancients often believed that the most genuine picture of Socrates was created in the dialogues of Aeschines of Sphettos (430/420-c. 356 BC). He paints a figure of Socrates involved in simple ethical dialectic on issues of social importance. We have several short fragments of his dialogues today. They do not reveal any interest in metaphysical or ontological issues.

        4. Xenophon (430-354 BC) was a military man and historian interested in Socrates' ethics. Many of his works survive today. He was not in Athens during the last years of Socrates' life but wrote accounts of his conversations using Antisthenes, Aeschines and Plato as well as other sources. Of particular interest are his Apology and Symposium that contrast greatly with Plato's works of the same name. Xenophon only rarely mentions Socrates' conversations at which he was personally present. His figure of Socrates reminds one of the perfect philosophical gentleman, giving practical and ethical advice to his friends and afraid of no danger (Xenophon's ideal).

        5. Socratic dialogues were also composed by Socrates' pupil Euclides of Megara (born between 450-430 BC). He too was interested in Socrates' dialectic, but especially in paradoxes and logical puzzles. Something of this is also implied in Plato (the Socratic paradoxes), but Euclides' paradoxes reminded the ancients of Eleatics like Zeno. As Plato's Socrates, Euclides also described the Good as a unity, but in an Eleatic way.

        6. Aristippus of Cyrene (430-355 BC) left a few fragments of his Socratic dialogues, but according to Xenophon, he interpreted philosophy as a form of hedonism.

      It is is possible that the original Socrates shared many of the views expressed by his pupils, but several of his pupils reflect specific interests of their own although some of them presented their own philosophy as a direct development of his.

      Two other sources:

      1. Aristophanes (445-385) wrote several comedies that refer to Socrates (Birds) -- and one that presents his character on the stage as running a Thinking Factory (Clouds). Aristophanes' account gives the average conservative Athenian' attitude to philosophers in which Socrates is seen as teaching the young, if not corrupting them.
         Aristophanes' account in the Clouds is the earliest we have (staged before 418-417 BC) but as a comic description cannot be taken as serious history or philosophy. Particularly, Socrates is shown practising rhetoric and following Ionian philosophyand sophistry.
         By contrast, Plato's Socrates is very critical of rhetoric and sophistry, not believing that theories of nature can help us understand morality.

      2. Aristotle (384-322 BC) mentions Socrates' several times in his works. He did not know him personally and derived his knowledge from Plato and other writers.
         However, he sometimes attempts to distinguish Socrates' philosophy from that of Plato in a way that may suggest that he had more information than we have.
         Some scholars interpret him to imply that Socrates searched only for universal ethical definitions while Plato later broadened his scope although using Socrates' figure as a mouthpiece for his own ideas
         • Cf. Aristotle Metaphysics 987b trans. Roth, pp. 58-59;
         • Aristotle Metaphysics 1078 trans. tadpis, p 34 no. 2

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         Scholarly Theories

         Conflicting conclusions have been drawn from this evidence:

         • Early scholars once believed that Plato gave the most accurate account of Socrates although this conflicts with Aristotle
         • 19th centrury scholars suggested that Xenophon's account was closer to the simple arguments of Socrates - but it is now agreed that he borrowed and used previous Socratic writers
         • In the middle of this century, it was generally agreed that the early dialogues of Plato preserved a picture of the historical Socrates while his later dialogues used Socrates more as a mouthpiece for his own Pythagorizing and Parmenidean discussions.
         • Several recent scholars have cast doubt on the periods of Plato's writings presuming that Socrates' dialectic underlies the whole of Plato's written work
         • It is too early to conclude in which direction scholarship will take in the next few years. However, a ballanced opinion may try to gather from all these sources essentially common features that may reflect the original Socrates.

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         Socrates' philosophy

         • The younger Socrates

           Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle agree that Socrates did not believe that the study of nature could contribute to our understanding of morality and man.
           However, there are signs that he may have been at least superficially interested in a philosophy of nature for a period in his youth:

           • Aristophanes Aristophanes describes him as turning to the heavens and the air as a source of thought (cf. Anaximenes), but this is an Aristophanean comic twist of Socrates' real persona.
           • Plato has the character of Socrates say in the Phaedothat in his own youth he was interested in Anaxagoras but was disappointed with the lack of consistency in his theory. This sounds like genuine bigoraphical information rather than an interest of Plato in Anaxagoras.
           • Plato has Socrates jokingly refer to his attendance at a lecture by the sophist Prodicus, which may show a preliminary interest of Socrates in the latter's philosophy of language and expression.
             • Prodicus was also closer to Socrates in his ethical theory while Protagoras was much criticised by Socrates for his.
           • In the Phaedo, Socrates shows an interest in the ethical and number theories of the Pythagorean Philolaus, but this probably reflects an interest of Plato rather than of Socrates.

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           Socrates' philosophical career

           A philosophy of ignorance

           In Plato's Apology, Socrates' philosophical search is said to originate in his attempt to disprove the Delphic Oracle's declaration of his wisdom -- Socrates attempts to find a wiser man than himself

           • His friend, Chaerephon was said to have asked who was the wisest of men -- and the oracle replied that it was Socrates
           • Socrates is then said to have questioned men of all classes at Athens (politicians, soldiers, poets, craftsmen and the young) in order to discover someone wiser than he.
           • But discovers that he himself does not know anything except that he does not know while all the others thought that they knew but did not. In this lay his wisdom.
           • He cites the Delphic oracle: Know yourself (gnothi seauton) in the sense that we must continually search from a state of self-acknowledged ignorance.

           definition of moral universals

           Aristotle testifies that Socrates dedicated his research to the definition of ethical universals (e.g., What is justice? What is courage?).

           • Aristotle calls this the 'whatness' or the 'what-is-it?' of a concept that gives us its essential definition as opposed to its accidental and incidental qualities
           • in later medieval philosophy the 'whatness of a thing' is known as its 'quiddity' or 'essence'

           In many of Plato's early dialogues where he most typically follows Socrates' original method, Socrates is similarly described as searching for the essence or the 'what-is-it?' of a moral concept

           • the 'what-is-it?' (in Greek: ti esti) is the what-ness that comprises the definition of a concept
           • Here too Socrates searches for the essence or the 'what-is-it?' of a moral concept as opposed to its accidental qualities

           Since Plato depicts Socrates as claiming ignorance -- he is shown as the one who requests to know the whatness of virtue

           • futhermore, he is never shown as discovering a final definition of what he sought
           • most of Plato's early Socratic dialogues where he most typically follows Socrates' method end in a stale-mate aporia when his conversant gives up suggesting a definition for the 'what-is-it?' of a moral concept

           the unity of the virtues

           Nonetheless, there are certain arguments ascribed to Socrates which are more constructive in form and leading to positive conclusions
           These arguments are found in Aristotle, Plato and Xenophon so that they probably have a basis in the philosophy of the historical Socrates

           Socrates often assumes that each moral virtue is a kind of knowledge or science -- in Greek: (episteme)

           • courage is the knowledge of when to flee and when to attack
           • justice is the knowledge of when to give and when to take
           • piety is the knowledge of what we owe to the gods
           • temperance is the knowledge of when to restrain ourselves
             etc, etc

           this means that all the moral universals are united by being kinds of knowledge

           one cannot know one virute without having all since they are a unity

           if the virtues are kinds of knowledge, then wickedness is a kind of ignorance

           but no one wishes to be ignorant -- therefor no man wishes to be wicked

           all wickedness is done involuntarily when people act through ignorance

           the 'Socratic paradox' is that no person does wrong of his own free will

           • although Plato accepted this argument, Aristotle criticised it in his Ethics for ignoring the emotive element

           methodology of dialectic

           nearly all our sources depict Socrates as pursuing a research in dialogue form -- that is a conversation of question and answer administered by Socrates

           however, it is only in Plato that this dialogue form takes on a fixed format

           • other Socratic writers depict Socrates' dialogues as less structured.
           • possibly some points of this structure owe their origin more to Plato than Socrates, but much must originate with the latter
           • in his later dialogues, Plato changes the format of his dialectical search for new forms

           although Socrates requested his conversants to explain the 'what-is-it?' of the In the early works of Plato, Socrates' methodology was a one-on-one dialectic for even if further conversants participated in the conversation, Socrates' questions were nearly always directed to one person at a time

           • this dialectic required that Socrates play the role of the enquiror who asked the questions -- and the conversant the one who knew the answer but was willing to submit himself to further questioning of Socrates

           in Plato, these conversations open with a primary question (what is virute? what is courage? etc ) -- where Socrates requests his conversant to teach him the meaning of a virtue

           • the primary question is not always the first question which is raised more for dramatic purposes
           • Socrates often entices his conversant into teachng him the meaning of a virtue by the use of Socratic irony: that he does not know the truth but his friend must be wise and clever so that he can teach Socrates the meaning of virtue

           The conversant answers Socrates' primary questions by stating a definition that is to be examined by a number of secondary questions

           the secondary questions often are intended to find internal inconsistencies in the definition or conclusions that are inconsistent with other views held by the conversant or by the majority of mankind

           when Socrates explains these inconsistencies he formulates a refutation (Greek: elenchos) of the defintion

           after several further attempts to define the subject, Socrates' conversant admits that he does not know or that he now knows that he does not know

           this stage in the dialogue is a stale-mate (Greek: aporia) and often marks the end of a Platonic dialogue

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         Summary

         In many ways, Socrates is a caleidescopic character who left legacies of different philosophies on different pupils. In all likelihood, he comprised a little of all of these facets. His refusal to divorce morality from society ultimately led to his death: it is impossible to stand outside of poitics without being an integral part of them at least as a moralistic spectator. Aristotle rightly saw Socrates as the begining of dialectic since he it was who introduced the concepts of aporia, the knowledge of lack of knowledge and universal essence. Aristotle's own theory of dialectic owes much to him.

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         Some Modern Philosophers on Socrates

         • Marcello Ficino (1433-1499)
           "Socrates like John the Baptist forshadowed Christ"
         • Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
           "Men ought not fall into Scorates his ironical doubting of all things" (De Cive)
         • Hobbes (1588-1679)
           Socrates "truly loved this civil science"
         • Collins (1676-1729)
           Socrates "was a very great Free-Thinker"
         • Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)
           "Socrates...the more I read about him, the less I wonder that they poisoned him"
         • Georg Wilhelm F Hegel (1770-1831)
           "Subjectivity of thought was made conscious in Socrates"
         • Friedrch Nietzsche (1844-1900)
           "a new antithesis in place of Dionysus-Apollo, now "Dionysian and the Socratic, and the art of Greek tragedy died of it" and denies Greek essence, always dissuades.

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         Bibliography

         English:

         • Gregory Vlastos, Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosoher (Cambridge)
         • Charles H. Kahn, Plato and the Socratic Dialogue (Cambridge)
         • Paul A. Vander Waerdt, The Socratic Movement (Cornell)

           older works:

         • W.K.C. Guthrie, Socrates = Cambridge History of Ancient Philosophy vol. 3
         • N. Gulley, The Philosophy of Socrates (MacMillan)
         • G. Vlastos, The Philosophy of Socrates esp. cap. 1,2

         Hebrew:

         • 5-4 íé÷øô ïåèìôàì àåáî é÷øô ø÷éìâ ïðçåé
         • ñèàø÷åñ ìâéôù ïúð

         Films (Videos) in Haifa University Library Multi-Media Dept.

         • Plato's Apology: Socrates VCV 465
         • Struggle for Democracy: pt 1 Socrates etc VCV 1320

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