46

IN CONTEXT

THE LIFE WHICH

BRANCH
Epistemology
APPROACH
Dialectical method

IS UNEXAMINED BEFORE
c.600–450 BCE Pre-Socratic
philosophers in Ionia and Italy

IS NOT WORTH attempt to explain the nature

of the cosmos.
Early 5th century BCE

LIVING
Parmenides states that we
can only understand the
universe through reasoning.
c.450 BCE Protagoras and the
SOCRATES (469–399 BCE) Sophists apply rhetoric to
philosophical questions.
AFTER
c.399–355 BCE Plato portrays
the character of Socrates in
the Apology and numerous
other dialogues.
4th century BCE Aristotle
acknowledges his debt to
Socrates’ method.

S
ocrates is often referred to
as one of the founders of
Western philosophy, and
yet he wrote nothing, established
no school, and held no particular
theories of his own. What he did do,
however, was persistently ask the
questions that interested him, and
in doing so evolved a new way of
thinking, or a new way of examining
what we think. This has been called
the Socratic, or dialectical, method
(“dialectical” because it proceeds
as a dialogue between opposing
views), and it earned him many
enemies in Athens, where he lived.
He was vilified as a Sophist
(someone who argues for the sake
of deception), and was sentenced to
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 47
See also: Thales of Miletus 22–23 ■ Pythagoras 26–29 ■ Heraclitus 40 ■

Parmenides 41 ■ Protagoras 42–43 ■ Plato 50–55 ■ Aristotle 56–63

The only life worth

living is a good life.

I can only live a good “Good” and “evil” are not

life if I really know what relative; they are absolutes
“good” and “evil” are. that can only be found by
a process of questioning Socrates
and reasoning.
Born in Athens in 469 BCE,
Socrates was the son of a
stonemason and a midwife.
It is likely that he pursued his
father’s profession, and had
An unquestioning life In this way, morality the opportunity to study
is one of ignorance, and knowledge are philosophy, before he was
without morality. bound together. called up for military service.
After distinguishing himself
during the Peloponnesian War,
he returned to Athens, and for
a while involved himself in
The life which is politics. However, when his
unexamined is not father died he inherited
worth living. enough money to live with
his wife Xanthippe without
having to work.
From then on, Socrates
became a familiar sight around
death on charges of corrupting the have studied natural philosophy,
Athens, involving himself in
young with ideas that undermined looking at the various explanations philosophical discussions with
tradition. But he also had many of the nature of the universe, but fellow citizens and gaining a
followers, and among them was then became involved in the politics following of young students.
Plato, who recorded Socrates’ ideas of the city-state and concerned He was eventually accused of
in a series of written works, called with more down-to-earth ethical corrupting the minds of young
dialogues, in which Socrates sets issues, such as the nature of justice. Athenians, and was sentenced
about examining various ideas. It is However, he was not interested in to death. Although he was
largely thanks to these dialogues— winning arguments, or arguing offered the choice of exile, he
which include the Apology, Phaedo, for the sake of making money—a accepted the guilty verdict
and the Symposium—that Socrates’ charge that was leveled at many of and was given a fatal dose
thought survived at all, and that it his contemporaries. Nor was he of hemlock in 399 BCE.
went on to guide the course of seeking answers or explanations—
Key works
Western philosophy. he was simply examining the
basis of the concepts we apply to
4th–3rd century BCE
The purpose of life ourselves (such as “good”, “bad”, Plato’s record of Socrates’ life
Socrates lived in Athens in the and “just”), for he believed that and philosophy in the Apology
second half of the 5th century BCE. understanding what we are is and numerous dialogues.
As a young man he is believed to the first task of philosophy. ❯❯
48 SOCRATES
Socrates’ central concern, then, But what exactly is involved in this
was the examination of life, and it examination of life? For Socrates it
was his ruthless questioning of was a process of questioning the
people’s most cherished beliefs meaning of essential concepts that
(largely about themselves) that we use every day but have never
I am a citizen earned him his enemies—but he really thought about, thereby
of the world. remained committed to his task revealing their real meaning and
Socrates until the very end. According to the our own knowledge or ignorance.
account of his defence at his trial, Socrates was one of the first
recorded by Plato, Socrates chose philosophers to consider what it
death rather than face a life of was that constituted a “good” life;
ignorance: “The life which is for him it meant achieving peace of
unexamined is not worth living.” mind as a result of doing the right
thing, rather than living according to
the moral codes of society. And the
Socrates’ dialectical method
was a simple method of questioning
“right thing” can only be determined
that brought to light the often false through rigorous examination.
assumptions on which particular Socrates rejected the notion
Q. So you think claims to knowledge are based. that concepts such as virtue were
that the gods relative, insisting instead that they
know everything? were absolutes, applicable not just to
citizens of Athens, or Greece, but to
A. Yes, because all people in the world. He believed
they are gods. that virtue (areté in Greek, which at
the time implied excellence and
Q. Do some gods fulfilment) was “the most valuable
disagree with others? of possessions”, and that no-one
actually desires to do evil. Anyone
performing evil actions would be
A. Yes, of course
acting against their conscience and
they do. They are
always fighting. would therefore feel uncomfortable;
Q. So gods disagree and as we all strive for peace of
about what is mind it is not something we would
true and right? do willingly. Evil, he thought, was
done because of lack of wisdom and
knowledge. From this he concluded
A. I suppose that “there is only one good:
they must do. knowledge; and one evil: ignorance.”
Q. So some gods Knowledge is inextricably bound to
can be wrong morality—it is the “only one
sometimes? good”—and for this reason we must
continually “examine” our lives.

A. I suppose Care of the soul

that is true. For Socrates, knowledge may also
play a part in life after death. In the
Therefore the gods Apology, Plato’s Socrates prefaces
cannot know his famous quote about the
everything! unexamined life by saying: “I tell
you that to let no day pass without
discussing goodness and all the
 THE ANCIENT WORLD 49
other subjects about which you to gradually elicit insights. He
hear me talking, and that examining likened the process to his mother’s
both myself and others is really the profession of midwife, assisting
very best thing a man can do.” in the birth of ideas.
This gaining of knowledge, rather Through these discussions,
than wealth or high status, is the Socrates came to realize that the I know nothing except
ultimate goal of life. It is not a matter Delphic oracle had been right – the fact of my ignorance.
of entertainment or curiosity—it is he was the wisest man in Athens, Socrates
the reason why we exist. Moreover, not because of his knowledge but
all knowledge is ultimately self- because he professed to know
knowledge, for it creates the person nothing. He also saw that the
you are within this world, and inscription on the entrance to the
fosters the care of the immortal soul. temple at Delphi, gnothi seauton
In Phaedo, Socrates says that an (“know thyself”), was just as
unexamined life leads the soul to significant. To gain knowledge then exposed the contradictions
be “confused and dizzy, as if it of the world and oneself it was within them and brought them to
were drunk”, while the wise soul necessary to realize the limits of agree to a new set of conclusions.
achieves stability, its straying one’s own ignorance and to remove This method of examining an
finally brought to an end. all preconceptions. Only then could argument by rational discussion
one hope to determine the truth. from a position of ignorance marked
Dialectical method Socrates set about engaging the a complete change in philosophical
Socrates quickly became a well- people of Athens in discussion on thinking. It was the first known
known figure in Athens, with a topics such as the nature of love, use of inductive argument, in
reputation for an enquiring mind. justice, and loyalty. His mission, which a set of premises based
A friend of his, so the story goes, misunderstood at the time as a on experience is first established
asked the priestess of Apollo at dangerous form of Sophistry—or to be true, and then shown to lead
Delphi who the wisest man in the cleverness for the sake of it—was to a universal truth in conclusion.
world was: the oracular reply was not to instruct the people, nor even This powerful form of argument
that there was no-one wiser than simply to learn what they knew, but was developed by Aristotle, and
Socrates. When Socrates heard to explore the ideas that they had. later by Francis Bacon, who used
about this, he was astounded, and It was the conversation itself, with it as the starting point of his
went to the most knowledgeable Socrates guiding it, that provided scientific method. It became,
people he could find to try to him with insights. Through a series therefore, the foundation not
disprove it. What he discovered of questions, he revealed the ideas only of Western philosophy, but
was that these people only thought and assumptions his opponent held, of all the empirical sciences. ■
they knew a great deal; under
examination, their knowledge was
proved to be either limited or false.
What was more important,
however, was the method he used
to question their knowledge. He
took the standpoint of someone who
knew nothing, and merely asked
questions, exposing contradictions
in arguments and gaps in knowledge

Socrates was put to death in 399 BCE,

ultimately for questioning the basis of
Athenian morality. Here he accepts the
bowl of hemlock that will kill him, and
gestures defiantly at the heavens.