SokratesSocrates

(469-399 BCE) The famous Athenian philosopher who was executed for his aggressive style of confrontational argument.

Sokrates used questions to elicit admissions or lead students and opponents to conclusions that they might not otherwise endorse; he was unjustly ridiculed and satirically characterized as an uncouth and generally annoying person; comic writers, such as Aristophanes, portrayed Sokrates as a blithering intellectual with no regard for his actions or ideas; Aristophanes may have contributed to the notion that Sokrates had corrupted the religion and morals of the youth of Athens because he was condemned to death for such misconceptions; Sokrates wrote nothing and our knowledge and understanding of this great man is only preserved by such writers as Plato and Xenophon.