Examine what is known about the ancient Athenian philosopher Socrates from Plato's dialogues and other sources

SOCRATES: I say again, that daily, to discourse about virtue, and of those other things about which you hear me examine myself and others, is the greatest good of man. And that the unexamined life is not worth living.

MORTIMER J. ADLER: Those were the words of a man who lived more than 2000 years ago. You've all heard of him, I'm sure. His name, of course, was Socrates, and he lived in Greece during the fifth century BC, in what was perhaps the most civilized society that has yet existed, that of the city-state of Athens. Socrates was a philosopher. What is philosophy, and what does the philosopher do? These are complicated questions which I can't hope to answer in one film. What I shall try to do is to introduce you to philosophy by introducing you to Socrates, who is not only the first great philosopher in our Western tradition, but also the one philosopher who has always been looked up to as the model of the philosophical mind. In whose life and teachings the spirit of philosophy is embodied.

Our knowledge of Socrates' life and teachings comes to us mainly from the dialogues of Plato. Plato, you may remember, was a pupil of Socrates, and a teacher of Aristotle. His dialogues are dramatically written conversations about the basic subjects that philosophers ever since have continued to discuss. In most of Plato's dialogues, Socrates is the leading character, or a central figure. To introduce you to him, and through him, to philosophy, I should refer briefly to a number of the dialogues. But for our major consideration, I have chosen the dialogue sometimes called The Apology, and sometimes the Trial of Socrates, because in it is recorded his defense of himself, of his life and teachings, before an Athenian court. He has been charged by certain of his fellow citizens with corrupting the youth of Athens by his teachings, with disbelief in the gods of the state, and with engaging in subversive inquiries.

In the course of defending himself against these charges, Socrates explains how he conceives his duties as a teacher and his role as a philosopher. He also reveals to us, at various times, some things about the kind of man he was. So I shall try to tell you, first, something about Socrates the man. Then a few words about Socrates as a teacher. And finally, we shall consider Socrates the philosopher.

One of the most striking things about Socrates the man was his love of conversation, his untiring interest in what could be learned by talking with his fellow men about almost any subject that might be proposed. Unlike earlier Greek thinkers, who are sometimes called the pre-Socratic philosophers, Socrates was not interested in studying nature. He was not an observer of natural phenomena, as some of his predecessors were. He was an observer of man, and of the human world as it is revealed in what men say and think about the world in which they live. He tells us this about himself in Plato's dialogue, the Phaedrus. Phaedrus has persuaded Socrates to take a walk into the country, by promising to recite a speech about love written by Lysias. But having succeeded in bringing Socrates out for a walk, Phaedrus expresses his amazement at Socrates' attitude.

PHAEDRUS: What an incomprehensible being you are, Socrates. When you're in the country, as you say, you really are like some stranger was led about by a guide. Do you ever cross the border? I rather think you never venture even beyond the city gates.

SOCRATES: Very true, my good friend, and I hope that you will excuse me when I tell you the reason, which is that I am a lover of knowledge, and the men who dwell in the cities are my teachers, and not the trees of the countryside. But I do indeed believe that you have find a spell to draw me out of the city and into the country, like a hungry cow before whom a bow, or a bunch of fruit is waved. Well, but hold before me in like manner, a book, and you may lead me all around Attica, and indeed, over the wide world.

ADLER: Later, at the very end of this same dialogue, the Phaedrus, Socrates reveals another aspect of his character-- his devotion to the pursuit of wisdom, instead of to the accumulation of wealth. Socrates lived in order to learn, and learning was his principal enjoyment. As he and Phaedrus prepare to leave, Socrates offers up a prayer to the local gods.

SOCRATES: Beloved Pan, and all the other gods who haunt this place, give me beauty in the inward soul, and may the outward and the inward man be at one. May I reckon the wise to be wealthy, and may I have such quantity of gold as the temperate man, and only he can carry away.

ADLER: "May I have such a quantity of gold as the temperate man, and only he can carry away." Time and again, Socrates calls attention to his poverty as evidence that he has devoted himself to teaching and learning, and not to making money. But he does not praise poverty for its own sake, but because, as he says to his accuser at his trial--

SOCRATES: I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money, and every other good of man, public as well as private.

ADLER: In another dialogue, the Phaedo, Socrates makes what to him is the most important point about money. Those who mainly pursue wealth, he says, have no leisure for philosophy. They become slaves to the cares of the body. They are distracted by worldly goods and pleasures from the most important activity of man, the pursuit of the truth. The kind of man Socrates was becomes clearer to us, perhaps, as we watch him at his trial. He realizes that he can save his life by throwing himself on the mercy of the court, and by trying to appease his accusers by promising to change his ways. But this he refuses to do.

SOCRATES: Strange indeed would be my conduct, O men of Athens. If I, who when I was ordered by the generals at Potidaea, and Amphipolis, and Delium, remained where they placed me, like any other man facing death, if now, when as I conceive and imagine, God orders me to fulfill the philosopher's mission of searching into myself and other men, if now, I were to desert that post through fear of death, or any other fear, that would indeed be strange. And so, if you say to me, "Socrates, this time you shall be let off, but upon one condition, that you are not to inquire or speculate any more." If this was the condition on which you would let me go, I should reply, "Men of Athens, I honor and love you, but I shall obey God rather than you. And while I have life and strength, I shall never cease, from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting anyone whom I meet, and saying to him after my manner, 'You, my friend, a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money, and honor, and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom, and truth, and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all?'"

ADLER: And so Socrates refused to throw himself upon the mercy of the court. He is condemned to death. But once again, he reveals his character in the last words he says to his judges.

SOCRATES: Wherefore, oh, judges be of good cheer about death. And know the certainty that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life, or after death. For which reason, I am not angry with my codemners or with my accusers. They have done me no harm, although they did not mean to do me any good. And for this, I may gently blame them. Still, I have a favor to ask of them. When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, oh my friends, to punish them. And I would have you trouble them, as I have troubled you. If they seem to care about riches, or anything more than about virtue, or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing, then reprove them, as I have reproved you. And if you do this, both I and my sons will have received justice at your hands. The hour of departure has arrived. We go our ways. I to die, and you to live. And only God knows which is better.

ADLER: In prison, Socrates awaits his execution calmly. But his friend Crito tries to persuade him to escape. Once again, Socrates will not take the easy way out. Although he regards himself as wrongly accused, he has been tried and sentenced according to the law. And the just man is one who respects the law and obeys it. In explaining this to Crito, Socrates imagines the laws speaking to him in these words.

SOCRATES: "Listen, then, Socrates to us who have brought you up. Think not of life and children first, and justice afterwards, but of justice first, that you may be justified before the princes of the world below. For now, neither you, nor any who belong to you, can be any happier, or holier, or juster in this world, or happier in another, if you do as Crito bids. For now, you depart in innocence. A sufferer, and not a doer of evil. A victim not to the laws, but of men." This, my dear Crito, is the voice I seem to hear murmuring in my ears, like the sound of the flute in the ears of the mystic. It prevents me from hearing any other voice, and I know that anything more you may say will be in vain.

ADLER: Thus, Socrates remains in prison, and the day of his execution arrives. On that day, his friends gather in his cell, and they're concern with his imminent death leads to talk about life and death, and the immortality of the soul. In that dialogue, the Phaedo, Socrates undertakes to prove to his friends that the soul is immortal. And he concludes this discussion by remarking--

SOCRATES: Wherefore I say, let a man to be of good cheer about his soul, who having cast away the pleasures and ornaments of the body as alien to him, has sought after the pleasures of knowledge, and has arrayed his soul in her own proper jewels, temperance, and justice, and courage, and nobility, and truth. And thus adorned, she is ready to go on her journey to the world below, when her hour comes.

ADLER: What was Socrates like as a teacher, and what is the Socratic style of teaching? The first thing I must observe about Socrates is that he is a teacher who is deeply conscious of his own ignorance. In fact, his whole career as a teacher is controlled by this sense on his part, that his only claim to the wisdom lies in his awareness that he is far from wise. At his trial, Socrates tells the story of the message brought back from Delphi.

Delphi, you may recall, here in northern Greece, was the oracle of the god Apollo. For many centuries, the ancient Greeks came here to consult the priestesses of Apollo about the future. Here also, according to Socrates, came his friend Chaerephon to find out whether there was anyone wiser than Socrates. The reply of the Delphic oracle was no, there was no man wiser. Socrates however, was troubled by the Delphic oracle's words. So troubled that he tried to find out what they meant. He did this by going about Athens questioning the poets, the statesmen, the businessmen, and others who appeared to think that they were wise. And by his cross-examination of them, he discovered that they were not wise at all, but only pretenders to wisdom. Thus we see the origin of Socrates' mission as a teacher.

SOCRATES: I go about the world obedient to the god, and search and make inquiry into the wisdom of anyone, whether citizen or stranger, who appears to be wise. And if he is not wise, then in vindication of the oracle, I show him that he is not wise.

ADLER: But Socrates also knows that he himself is not wise, and that his mission as a teacher is identical with his mission as a learner. In his questioning of others about the basic problems that all men face, he is trying to learn the truth for him self, as well as to help others learn it. Man's fundamental duty, according to Socrates, is his duty to inquire. Man's highest activity is to engage in the pursuit of wisdom and truth. Men discharge this duty, and engage in this activity, when they converse with one another about basic subjects. The sources of virtue and of happiness; the principles of the good society and of just government; the nature of the good, the true and the beautiful; the immortality of the soul; the origin and structure of the universe. One example of this occurs in the dialogue entitled Theaetetus, in which Socrates questions Theaetetus about his teacher, Theodorus the geometrician.

SOCRATES: In the first place I should like to ask what you learned of your teacher. Something of geometry, perhaps?

THEAETETUS: Yes.

SOCRATES: And astronomy, harmony, calculation?

THEAETETUS: I do my best.

SOCRATES: Ah. And so do I, my boy. It is my desire to learn of him, or of anybody who seems to understand these things. But I do pretty well in general. But there is one little difficulty on which I want you, and the company, to aid me in investigating. Will you answer me a question? Is not learning, growing wiser about that which we learn?

THEAETETUS: Of course.

SOCRATES: And by wisdom, the wise are wise?

THEAETETUS: Yes.

SOCRATES: And does that differ in any way from knowledge?

THEAETETUS: What?

SOCRATES: Wisdom. Are not men wise by that which they know?

THEAETETUS: Certainly they are.

SOCRATES: Then wisdom and knowledge are the same thing.

THEAETETUS: Yes.

SOCRATES: Ah. Now here is the difficulty, which I can never solve to my own satisfaction. What is knowledge? Can any of us answer that question? What say you? Which of us shall speak first?

ADLER: Here then, we see what is meant by the Socratic style of teaching. It is teaching by asking, instead of teaching by telling. And above all, it is the kind of teaching in which the teacher is himself a learner, and every learner has the opportunity to teach, by questioning, as well as, by answering. This picture of Socrates as a teacher is confirmed and developed in two other dialogues of Plato.

In the Meno, Socrates and Meno are discussing how virtue is acquired, and whether it can be taught. At the beginning of this conversation, Meno thinks that he knows what virtue is. But Socrates, by questioning him, makes him realize that he does not know. Meno, pained by this discovery, complains to Socrates that his method of discussion, and of teaching, has a paralyzing effect, like the sting of an electric eel. Meno says, "I have given an infinite variety of speeches about virtue before, and to many persons, but at this moment, I cannot even say what virtue is." Socrates admits that his questioning was intended to have this effect. For in his opinion, it is necessary, in order to learn, first to realize that one does not know. But he goes on to explain that his method of teaching arises from his sense of his own ignorance, and from his desire to know. He says, "I perplex others, not because I am clear, but because I am utterly perplexed myself."

Again, to return to the Theaetetus, Plato reports another Socratic insight into the role of the teacher. Here, Socrates describes what he is trying to do by his method of questioning, by comparing it to what a midwife does in helping a mother give birth to a child. Theaetetus complains that when Socrates questions him, he cannot shake off a feeling of anxiety. To which Socrates replies--

SOCRATES: But these are the pangs of labor, my dear boy. You have something within you which you are bringing to the birth.

THEAETETUS: I do not know, Socrates. I only say what I feel.

SOCRATES: Have you not heard, simpleton, that I am the son of a midwife?

THEAETETUS: Yes, I have.

SOCRATES: And that I, myself, practice midwifery?

THEAETETUS: No, never.

SOCRATES: Well let me tell you that it is so. But I must ask you never to reveal the secret, for the world in general has not yet found me out.

Therefore they say of me that I am the strangest of mortals, and that I drive men to their wits end. Have you not heard this, too?

THEAETETUS: Yes, I've heard that.

SOCRATES: And shall I tell you the reason?

THEAETETUS: By all means.

SOCRATES: Bear in mind the whole business of the midwives, and then you will understand my meaning better. Now it is true, is it not, that the midwives know better than others who is pregnant, and who is not?

THEAETETUS: Yes, it is. Very true.

SOCRATES: And by the use of potions and incantations, they are able to rouse the pangs of birth, and soothe them at will. They can make those bear who have difficulty in bearing.

THEAETETUS: They can.

SOCRATES: Their task, then, a very important one, but it is not as important as mine. For women cannot bring into the world at one time real children, and at another time, counterfeits. If they did, then the discernment of the true and false would be the crowning achievement of the art of midwifery, would you not say so?

THEAETETUS: Indeed, I should.

SOCRATES: Well the art of my midwifery is in many respects like theirs. It differs in that I attend men, and not women. I look after their souls when they are in labor, and not their bodies. And the triumph of my art is in thoroughly examining whether the thought which the mind of the young man brings forth is a false idol or a noble and true birth.

ADLER: So it is the learner who gives birth to ideas. And in that process of learning, the teacher merely helps by asking questions. Teaching, in other words, does not consist in putting knowledge or ideas into the passive mind of a learner, as if the learner's mind were a receptacle that could be thus filled. On the contrary, learning always requires an active mind. It is the learner's activity which is primary, and the best teaching is done by those who know how to guide this activity to a good result. Guide it the way Socrates did, by asking questions and letting the learner discover the answers for himself.

Let us now return to The Apology, in order to listen to Socrates make one further remark about his mission as a teacher.

SOCRATES: I am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by God. And the state is a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places, I am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.

ADLER: In what we've already seen about Socrates the man and Socrates the teacher, we have some glimmering of the character of Socrates, the philosopher. We know, for example, that his method of teaching was also his method of philosophizing. A method of pursuing the truth and seeking wisdom in an endless inquiry conducted by questions and answers, and by questioning answers as well as by answering questions. We know also something about the fundamental values which motivated his philosophical inquiries. His deep interest in that kind of truth which cannot be discovered by scientific observation or historical research, but only by reflection, analysis, and argument. We know his devotion to the world of ideas, and to the things of the human spirit, rather than to the observable world of nature, and the material comforts of life.

Though as we have seen, he repeatedly confesses ignorance, Socrates also, from time to time, reveals that he has a number of fundamental convictions. Things which he does know, and about which he has no doubt. I do not have time to mention all of these, but I can call your attention to three of his most fundamental philosophical convictions, all of which he declares in the course of his trial. The first is his conviction that of all human goods, virtue and wisdom, a good moral character, and a mind filled with truth, are the greatest and most important. In The Apology, he says to his fellow citizens--

SOCRATES: I have tried to persuade every man among you, that he must look to himself, and seek virtue and wisdom before he looks to his private interests. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person.

ADLER: The second basic truth which Socrates thinks he knows clearly enough to declare to others is this. Through being virtuous, men achieve an inner core of happiness that no external troubles or hardships can take away. Know of a certainty, he tells his judges, that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life, or in death. What he is saying very briefly here, is that the virtuous man has nothing to fear from the misfortunes which happen to everyone. His body may suffer injuries from his follow men, or even the pains which nature sometimes inflicts upon it, but these injuries and pains do not touch his soul. That can be hurt only by what he himself does and thinks, or fails to do and think.

The third conviction which Socrates expresses at his trial occurs in the context of his repeating what he has said before, namely that man's duty is to inquire, and to discourse with his fellow men about the good, the true, and the beautiful. He is saying, in short, that every man should be a philosopher, or at least should try to philosophize. Why? Socrates answers this question in one of the great passages of The Apology, the passage which you heard at the beginning of this film.

SOCRATES: I say that daily to discourse about virtue, and of those other things about which you hear me examining myself and others, is the greatest good of man, and of the unexamined life is not worth living.