Person470 BC – 399 BC

Socrates

Athenian philosopher who sought universal truth by questioning others into recognising their ignorance, and was executed for corrupting the young

The son of a stonemason, he fought as a hoplite in the Peloponnesian War. He wrote nothing, so his thought is known from his disciples Plato and Xenophon. Taking “know thyself” as his watchword, he used question and answer to lead others to recognise their ignorance and bring true knowledge to birth (his “midwifery”). Sentenced to death, he refused his friends’ offers to help him escape, saying he would obey the law, and drank the hemlock.

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1 related event

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399 BC – 322 BCThe Death of Socrates and Greek Philosophyleader
In 399 BC an Athenian court sentenced Socrates to death for corrupting the young. His disciple Plato and Plato’s pupil Aristotle built the framework of Western philosophy.

People who appear alongside

Plato427 BC – 347 BC
Disciple of Socrates who founded the Academy in Athens and wrote dialogues such as the Republic, setting out the theory of Forms and rule by philosopher-kings
Aristotle384 BC – 322 BC
Pupil of Plato and tutor of Alexander who founded the Lyceum and systematised logic, ethics, politics and natural science

Themes this person appears in

Greece and Rome2000 BC – AD 476
From the Aegean civilisation to the fall of the Western Roman Empire — the classical civilisation built by the democracy of the polis and the Roman republic and empire