SOCRATES

In David's painting, Socrates continues to speak while at the same time stretching his hand out to accept the cup of poisonous hemlock. This emphasizes his commitment to his principles.Around him others faint, collapse or cry in distress contrasting the calmness and dignity Socrates shows in the face of death. His wife is seen only in the distance leaving the prison. Plato, his student and later a great philosopher, stands the end of the bed while Crito, grasps his master's leg. It is Socrates alone who is in quiet composed control willing to die for what he believes is right.

· "Know thyself."

· "The only thing I know is that I know nothing."

· "Ignorance is the only evil."

We know about Socrates from others, in particular Plato. Plato's writing describes Socrates's most famous philosophical ideas: 'the necessity of doing what one thinks is right even in the face of universal opposition, and the need to pursue knowledge even when opposed'(Nails, D).

Socrates has been admired and may try to be emulate(imitate) him which according to Nails (2010) is 'strange for someone who tried so hard to make others do their own thinking, and for someone convicted and executed on the charge of irreverence toward the gods'. Yet many found him strange.

What was odd was that he did not work for money, nor take part in state affairs. He accepted poverty and, even though many of the young men followed him and imitated him, Socrates steadfastly insisted he was not a teacher and refused all his life to take money for what he did. 'The strangeness of this behavior is mitigated by the image then current of teachers and students: teachers were viewed as pitchers pouring their contents into the empty cups that were the students'. Because Socrates did not just give out information and expect others to passively, unquestioningly receive it , he claimed that he absolutely was no teacher. He expected people to think and reason. He saw his role as helping others recognize for themselves what is real, true, and good.

Socrates also had a higher opinion of women than many others of the time.He talked of “men and women,” “priests and priestesses,” and spoke of foreign women as his teachers: Aspasia of Miletus, Pericles's partner.

Read more about Socrates at:

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/philosophy/socrates.htmHistory for Kids

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