Biography of Socrates

Socrates was born in 469 B.C. in Athens. He was the son of Sophroniscus the sculptor and of the midwife Phaenarete. Socrates grew up having a great education in geometry and astronomy. He had a hunger for learning and thinking and he knew at a young age that he was going to be a very intelligent person.

There are no paintings of Socrates, but the people of his time wrote down that he was not a very good looking man. In other words, he was very ugly. Socrates had a big, wide nose, eyes that bugged out of his head, and a rather huge mouth. But Socrates thought that he looked rather unique because of these features. Also, he did not care what people thought of his looks because he could out-think any of these people anyday, and the people knew he was a smart man, so they did not really care about what he looked like, but they thought that he was "all glorious within." (source)

When Socrates was about forty years old, he started really using his mind. He would ask the people in Athens questions such as "What is beauty?", "What is the right thing to do?", "What is virtue?" and so on. He knew that these questions were very difficult questions to answer, but he knew that these questions would make the people get deep into thought and challenge their knowledge. He would go around getting other peoples opinions on the questions and he would challenge them to use their minds.

There is actually no writings left behind from Socrates because he never wrote down anything or wrote any books. I find this strange because Socrates had so many great ideas and he was so smart, but he enver wrote down any of these ideas of stories. Also, some philosophers today don't even believe that Socrates even ever lived. Some of these philosophers believe that he was justa character made up by Plato for his story, Plato's Meno.

Socrates was sentenced to jail for "corrupting" the people's minds of Athens. He did not think that this was fair at all because he knew that he was one of the few people who challenged the people to use their minds and look for answers. They were going to execute him for this, but Socrates did not want this, so he killed himself with a dangerous poison called Hemlock. Socrates died in 399 B.C. and is still known today as one of the most intelligetn philosophers in the history of the world. He is known by many today and is still known for being a man who was both liked and disliked by many.


BOOKS

Wiggers,Friedrich,Gustav. A Life of Socrates. Taylor and Walton. 1940.

I used notes from the movie and from what we have been talking about in class...so i used the notes!