This said, Socrates exists today as a shadow, who apparently left no writings—certainly none survive—and is therefore known only through the accounts of several classical writers, paramount among them two of his students, Xenophon (c. 430-354 BC) and Plato. If we could accept Plato’s Republic and the other Dialogues as essentially accurate transcriptions of Socrates’ philosophy, we would be able to credit him in detail with a trove of contributions to ethics and epistemology and with essentially laying the foundation of Western philosophy. But the fact is that the Socrates we know is more accurately called the “Platonic Socrates.” He and his thought exist for us somewhere on a spectrum that spans transcription on one end
and fiction on the other. Perhaps Plato gives us a highly faithful representation of the historical Socrates, or perhaps he puts his own words into the mouth of an essentially fictional character. Most likely, the Dialogues are, like all memoirs, a synthesis of recollection and invention.
In short, we must accept that the only source of Socratic philosophy is Plato and leave it at that. Thus, in this book, the entry on Plato is the place to find a discussion of the philosophy of Socrates.
Importantly, the name of Socrates has been lifted to identify two methodological concepts that figure importantly in philosophy and rhetoric. These are “Socratic irony,” which is feigning ignorance as a means of confuting a rhetorical or philosophical adversary, and the “Socratic method,” a cooperative argumentative dialogue between or among individuals, which consists of asking and answering questions that stimulate critical thinking and therefore extract ideas and assumptions through the evolution of the resulting discourse.
The description of “Socratic irony” is based on an observation or assertion that Socrates was a master at convincingly pretending to know nothing of a topic under discussion and to use that feigned ignorance to draw out from his adversary nonsensical or erroneous arguments. This form of rhetorical jiujitsu effectively prompted the adversary to confute or even refute himself.
The “Socratic method” is much more profound because it is far more than a rhetorical tactic. It is driven by a key epistemological assumption that knowledge (“truth”) is either discovered or created in thought that is expressed in language, the expression created by the dialogue of multiple minds over the span of the dialogue. Truth thus emerges through a progressive combination of hypothesis creation, hypothesis testing, and hypothesis elimination.
As for the life of Socrates—bearing in mind that while accounts are relatively plentiful, considering he was a figure from antiquity, they do not extensively corroborate one another —the consensus is that he was born about 469 BC in Athens and died there in 399 BC. He was the son of Sophroniscus, a sculptor, and Phaenarete, a midwife. The family was well-todo but not wealthy. Late in his life, he married Xanthippe, who (tradition has it) was a notorious shrew. The marriage produced three sons, none of whom achieved fame.
It is believed he developed an interest in science as a young man and became the student of the physicist Archelaus of Miletus. He fought with distinction as a hoplite in the Athenian army and may have participated in combat at Samos (441-440) and at the Battle of Potidaea (432-430). In this engagement during the Peloponnesian War, he reputedly saved the life of the controversial general Alcibiades. Socrates, it is said, also fought at Delium (424) and Amphipolis (437-438).
Socrates never sought or held public office but nevertheless believed that no citizen had the right to refuse public duty. He served on the Boule, also known as the Council of 500, during 406-405 and was the only councilor who stood against the condemnation of the Athenian generals accused of wrongdoing at the Battle of Arginusae (406). In 404, he defied the orders of the Thirty Tyrants (the pro-Spartan oligarchy installed in Athens after defeat in the Peloponnesian War) to make a politically motivated arrest of those generals.
In 399, Socrates was tried for the crime of “impiety” and convicted of religious heresies and corrupting the Athenian youth. Sentenced to death, he declined an escape plan offered by his friend Crito and instead drank hemlock to carry out, by suicide, the penalty levied against him.
