Page 3 - GROUP-2-E-Magazine

S O C R A T E S - E A R L Y L I F E

According to the Greek biographer Diogenes Laërtius, Socrates was born on the "sixth day of
Thargelion". However, there is still no confirmation about the exact year of his birth. Historians
believe that Socrates was born in-between 471 and 469 BC, A great number of historians believe
that his birth year is 470BC. Socrates had a half-sibling named Patrocles, born out of his
mother’s second marriage to Chaeredemus. Apart from that information little is known about
his family background or even childhood. Socrates mother was a ‘maia’. If translated it means a
midwife. The role of a maia was generally performed by women from a wealthy family. It is
believed that her family had a higher status than Spohroniscus. As required by the Athenian law,
Socrates was once served as a hoplite or citizen soldier during the Peloponnesian War(431-401
BC). In 432BC, at Potidaea, he saved the life of Alcibiades a popular Athenian general. During the
Peloponnesian War he showed tremendous courage, that remained in him for the rest of his
existence. After he returned to Athens, he started exploring Philosophy. Socrates was believed
to have shown a thirst for knowledge, acquiring the writings of Anaxagoras, a leading
contemporary philosopher. According to one of his disciple Plato, he studied rhetoric with
Aspasia, the talented mistress of the great Athenian leader, Pericles.

S O C R A T E S - T H E G R E A T P H I L O S O P H E R

There is no exact reason or date when Socrates started his intellectual pursuit. According to
Xenophon, Socrates soon started visiting workshops, and eventually met Simon who became his
disciple and wrote his first ‘Dialogue’. Socrates style of teaching is very unique among others.
Instead of lecturing, he would ask for questions and then discuss possible answers and finally
into a deeper understanding of the subject. This later became known as ‘Socratic Method’. In
423 BC, Socrates became known to the broader public through Aristophanes’ play, ‘Clouds’. In
this caricature, he was epicted as a scruffy and untidy fool, whose philosophy amounted to
teaching how to get out of debts. While the second part was unfair, he indeed cut a strange
figure in Athens. Socrates roamed around the city, barefooted and unwashed, asking questions
to the elite and to the people who were considered wise, seeking to arrive at the truth. The
young disciples enjoyed the debates, relishing the fact he always defeated them. Despite the
popularity and fame that Socrates has, he did not consider himself wise. Two of his younger
students, the historian Xenophon and the philosopher Plato, recorded the most significant
accounts of Socrates’ life and philosophy. For both, the Socrates that appears bears the mark of
the writer. Thus, Xenophon’s Socrates is more straightforward, willing to offer advice rather than
simply asking more questions. In Plato’s later works, Socrates speaks with what seem to be
largely Plato’s ideas. In the earliest of Plato’s “Dialogues”—considered by historians to be the most
accurate portrayal—Socrates rarely reveals any opinions of his own as he brilliantly helps his
interlocutors dissect their thoughts and motives in Socratic dialogue, a form of literature in
which two or more characters (in this case, one of them Socrates) discuss moral and
philosophical issues.