SOCRATES HIS LIFE

Socrates was a Classic Greek Philosopher (469-399 BC) who founded what today is called the Western Philosophy. He made important and lasting contributions to the fields of Epistemology and logic. Epistemology is the branch of Philosophy that deals with the nature of knowledge, its scope and validity. He is renowned in the field of Ethics and his concepts of Socratic irony and Socratic Method or Elenchus.

Elenchus is commonly used as a tool in many discussions. It is a type of pedagogy, a teaching, in which a series of questions are asked, not intended to draw an individual answer, but to encourage fundamental insights to the issues at hand.

We know of Socrates only through his students as he never wrote any philosophical texts. The works of his famous students give us an insight into this man and his teachings. The foremost among his student was Plato, others include:

Aristophanes -a playwright

Aristotle

Xenophon

Historians believe Plato's work to be the most reliable source of information, even though at times Plato appears to have pushed Socrates insights far beyond anything he would likely have done. What is clear is that Socrates was a real person aside from Plato. We have the works and testimony of others, like The Clouds by Aristophanes. Since most of Aristophanes plays were parodies, it is assumed that the portrayal of Socrates as a clown in The Clouds should not be taken literally.

Scholars Eric Havelock and Walter Ong see Socrates as a champion of oral modes of communication, standing out against the written word and its haphazard diffusion of words.

Socrates was married to Xanthippe and they had three sons:

Lamprocles

Sophroniscus

Menexenus

It is not known for sure how Socrates made his living, but it is held possible that he either was a:

Stonemason, a job took over from his father

Teacher

Solider

We do know that he served in the Athenian army during three campaigns:

Potidaea

Amphipolis

Delium (219 221 BC) where he saved Alcibiades life, as he mentions in his Symposium, and is also mentioned in Laches (181 BC)

In his Apology,
Socrates compares his military service to his courtroom troubles, saying "anyone on the jury who thinks that he ought to retreat from philosophy, must also think soldiers should retreat when it looks they will be killed in battle."

In 406, he became a member of the Boule, a council of the government which appointed citizens to run the daily affairs of the city and his tribe, the Antiochis. He was a member

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