As a young man, however, Plato became a student of Socrates and turned his attention to the question of what constitutes a virtuous life. Almost all of Plato's writings date from after Socrates's trial and execution. Although Plato earlier showed an interest in politics, Socrates' death sentence and disillusionment with the behavior of an oligarchy known as the Thirty Tyrants that assumed power in seem to have caused Plato to turn to a life of philosophical reflection and writing.
Plato is often closely identified with the discredited eight-month rule of the Thirty Tyrants because of the large role played in that government by his mother's uncle, Critias, and a lesser role played by his mother's brother, Charmides. During their brief hold on power, the oligarchy practiced widespread executions of political opponents and confiscated the property of wealthy Athenians. Plato's writings are generally divided into three broad groups: the "Socratic" dialogues written from to , the "Middle" dialogues written from to , after the establishment of his Academy in Athens , and the "Later" dialogues written in the period between and his death in Three of Plato's four writings concerning the last days of Socrates come from the earliest "Socratic" period: Euthyphro , the Apology , and the Crito.
Euthyphro is an imagined dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro about piety--Socrates stood charged with impiety--as Socrates prepared to enter the Royal Stoa to formally answer the charges brought against him by Meletus and other accusers. The Apology is presented as the speech given by Socrates in his own defense at his trial. It will be observed that the Socratic Method is not infallible, especially when dealing with Thrasymachus. Methuen, Socrates: I see, from the few words which Polus has uttered, that he has attended more to the art which is called rhetoric than to dialectic.
Polus: What makes you say so, Socrates? Socrates: Because, Polus, when Chaerephon asked you what was the art which Gorgias knows, you praised it as if you were answering someone who found fault with it, but you never said what the art was. Polus: Why, did I not say that it was the noblest of arts? Socrates: Yes, indeed, but that was no answer to the question: nobody asked what was the quality, but what was the nature, of the art, and by what name we were to describe Gorgias.
And I would still beg you briefly and clearly, as you answered Chaerephon when he asked you at first, to say what this art is, and what we ought to call Gorgias: Or rather, Gorgias, let me turn to you, and ask the same question, what are we to call you, and what is the art which you profess? Gorgias: Rhetoric, Socrates, is my art. Socrates: Then I am to call you a rhetorician?
Gorgias: Yes, Socrates, and a good one too, if you would call me that which, in Homeric language, "I boast myself to be. Socrates: I should wish to do so. Gorgias: Then pray do. Socrates: And are we to say that you are able to make other men rhetoricians? Gorgias: Yes, that is exactly what I profess to make them, not only at Athens, but in all places.
Socrates: And will you continue to ask and answer questions, Gorgias, as we are at present doing and reserve for another occasion the longer mode of speech which Polus was attempting? Will you keep your promise, and answer shortly the questions which are asked of you? Gorgias: Some answers, Socrates, are of necessity longer; but I will do my best to make them as short as possible; for a part of my profession is that I can be as short as any one.
Socrates: That is what is wanted, Gorgias; exhibit the shorter method now, and the longer one at some other time.
Gorgias: Well, I will; and you will certainly say, that you never heard a man use fewer words. Socrates: Very good then; as you profess to be a rhetorician, and a maker of rhetoricians, let me ask you, with what is rhetoric concerned: I might ask with what is weaving concerned, and you would reply would you not?
Socrates: And music is concerned with the composition of melodies? Gorgias: It is. Socrates: By Here, Gorgias, I admire the surpassing brevity of your answers. Gorgias: Yes, Socrates, I do think myself good at that. Socrates: I am glad to hear it; answer me in like manner about rhetoric: with what is rhetoric concerned? Gorgias: With discourse. Socrates: What sort of discourse, Gorgias--such discourse as would teach the sick under what treatment they might get well?
Socrates: Then rhetoric does not treat of all kinds of discourse? Gorgias: Certainly not. Socrates: And yet rhetoric makes men able to speak? Socrates: And to understand that about which they speak? Gorgias: Of course Socrates: Come, then, and let us see what we really mean about rhetoric; for I do not know what my own meaning is as yet. When the assembly meets to elect a physician or a shipwright or any other craftsman, will the rhetorician be taken into counsel?
Surely not. For at every election he ought to be chosen who is most skilled; and, again, when walls have to be built or harbours or docks to be constructed, not the rhetorician but the master workman will advise; or when generals have to be chosen and an order of battle arranged, or a proposition taken, then the military will advise and not the rhetoricians: what do you say, Gorgias?
This was another defeat for the Athenian army which, while already under attack from Boeotian footsoldiers, was surprised by a troop of cavalry. Any anonymity Socrates may have enjoyed came to an abrupt end at the annual Dionysian festival in the spring of Plato sets a dialogue about the etymologies of words [ Cratylus ] upon his return.
Socrates, so far as we know, did not return to war again. Athens and Sparta entered into a treaty named for Nicias that—while never completely effective—allowed Attica to remain free of Spartan invasion and crop-burnings for several years. Again education is a central theme, but so are the democracy and Eleusinian Mystery religion. From the fact that they named their first son Lamprocles, it has been assumed both that her father was named Lamprocles and that her dowry was enough to provide for her needs.
Meanwhile, Alcibiades persuaded the Assembly, over prescient objections from Nicias Thucydides 6. Both Nicias and Alcibiades, along with Lamachus, were elected to command. Since Hermes was the god of travel, the city feared a conspiracy against the democracy. A commission was formed to investigate not only the herm-smashing, but all crimes of irreverence asebeia that could be discovered, offering rewards for information.
In a climate of near-hysteria over three months, accusations led to executions including summary executions , exile, torture, and imprisonment affecting hundreds of people, some of whom were close to Socrates Alcibiades, Phaedrus, Charmides, Critias, Eryximachus, and others. He was not relieved, but reinforcements were sent—too few, too late. The war in Sicily ended in complete and humiliating defeat.
Spring brought a new attack on Socrates by Aristophanes Birds , lines —3, —5. Plato sets a dialogue between Socrates and a rhapsode before the news of the defeat reached Athens [ Ion ] , while the city—short of military leaders—was trying to attract foreign generals to help with the war. The treasury was spent, and the citizenry demoralized. Under his leadership, Athens began scoring victories, and morale improved. Democracy was restored, peace offers from Sparta were again rebuffed, and Athens established a commission to rewrite all the existing laws.
One of the Lysis characters, Ctesippus, was present again two years later for a display by two sophists former generals [ Euthydemus ]. Athens won the sea battle of Arginusae, but at such cost that the city never recovered: in barest outline, what happened was this. With thousands dead, and damage to the fleet, two captains were sent to collect the casualties; a storm prevented their doing so, while the generals hastened to give relief at Mytilene.
When news of the battle hit Athens, there was outrage at the failure to save the wounded and collect the corpses for burial. The board of ten generals was charged, but two fled and two were still in Mytilene , so six returned to Athens for trial in October of Lang By luck of the lottery, Socrates was serving on the Prytanes, the presiding committee of Council Plato, Apology 32b; Xenophon, Hellenica 1.
Some in the Assembly opposed the illegality, but the opposition so incensed the majority that it overwhelmingly approved a motion to subject the opposition to the same vote as would decide the fate of the generals.
Socrates alone among the Prytanes was left standing for the law and the generals; his refusal to allow the vote had the effect of allowing one last, eloquent speech from the floor that proposed a preliminary vote to decide between sentencing the group and permitting separate trials Xenophon, Hellenica 1.
The Assembly approved separate trials, but a parliamentary maneuver invalidated the vote. When the Assembly voted again, it was to decide the lives of the generals up or down. All were condemned. The Athenians were soon to regret having executed their remaining military leaders. The Athenians, recalling their own treatment of the Melians, expected to be slaughtered when the siege inevitably ended, but nothing of the sort occurred.
None of the contemporaneous sources, no matter how hostile to the rule of the Thirty—Isocrates, Lysias, Plato, and Xenophon—denies the legitimacy of their election. That they formed a government that abused and exceeded its authority no one could reasonably deny, but it is against just such governments that acts of civil disobedience must sometimes be directed. Undermining a corrupt government by refusing to harm a good man might be unlawful, but not unjust.
Critias and Charicles, two leaders of the Thirty, sought to intimidate Socrates by forbidding him, unsuccessfully, to speak to men under thirty Xenophon, Memorabilia 1. Socrates, and two young men with him, were said to have attempted to intervene unarmed against the Scythian guards, stopped only when Theramenes himself implored them to desist Diodorus Siculus The Thirty, now increasingly viewed as tyrannical, were also making contingency plans: they sent forces to secure the deme of Eleusis for themselves by putting to death the population on charges of supporting democracy Xenophon, Hellenica 2.
Socrates remained in the city. The Thirty attempted to implicate him in their executions by ordering him to join others in going to Salamis to fetch the former democratic general, Leon. Luckily for Socrates, before the Thirty could exact revenge, the democrats from Phyle entered the city through the Piraeus and met the forces of the Thirty in a battle where both Critias and Charmides were killed.
Remnants of the Thirty returned to the city to consider their options. The Three Thousand, increasingly suspicious of one another, deposed the Thirty and replaced them with a Board of Ten that was elected one per tribe Xenophon, Hellenica 2. The Thirty began abandoning the city for Eleusis as the board called for Spartan help.
The Spartans arrived, led by Lysander and by one of their two kings, Pausanias. Pausanias especially attempted to effect reconciliation among all the Athenian factions, allowing the exiles to return and the oligarchs to rule themselves in Eleusis.
One such exile was Anytus, a man hostile to Socrates and who would later support charges of irreverence against him. Equally contemporary, but contemptuous of Socrates, is the introduction of the Al Qaeda Training Manual Department of Justice translation, ellipses in original : The confrontation that we are calling for with the apostate regimes does not know Socratic debates …, Platonic ideals …, nor Aristotelian diplomacy.
Philosophers and students of philosophy with a desire to see how Socrates is viewed outside the discipline might wish to consult the following supplementary document: The Reception of Socrates. Bussanich, John, and Nicholas D. Smith eds. Cooper, John M. Guthrie, W. Morrison, Donald R. Vander Waerdt ed. Analytic philosophy of Socrates Benson, Hugh H. Benson, Hugh H. Brickhouse, Thomas C. Burnyeat, M[yles] F.
Jones, Russell E. Hyland, Drew A. Hong and E. Hong, Princeton: Princeton University Press. Nietzsche, Friedrich, , The Birth of Tragedy , tr. Zuckert, Catherine H.
Griswold, Charles, ed. Klagge, James C. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Graham Zanker, London: Routledge. Specialized studies Allen, R[eginald] E. Dover, K[enneth] J. Ledger, Gerard R. McCabe, M. McPherran, Mark L. Monoson, S. Ross, W. Academic Tools How to cite this entry. Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.
It has the works of Aristophanes and Xenophon as well. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy has an article devoted to Socrates. Related Entries Plato Plato: shorter ethical works. Open access to the SEP is made possible by a world-wide funding initiative. Mirror Sites View this site from another server:.
After completing his two years of military training, Socrates was subject to being sent beyond the borders of Attica with the army, but these were years of relative peace, so he is likely to have practiced a trade, at least until he gave his mother in marriage to Chaeredemus.
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