Put a sock in it again, Socrates!

Hello again! So what do you want to tell us now Socrates?

"The people of Athens didn't really know how to think for themselves. So I used to discuss important things with them to wake them up. They were like lazy horses who didn't want to move, and I was like the gadfly, stinging them into life!"
Ouch! that sounds painful!
"I had a special method. Say I met a boy - call him Miletus - in the city square. I would ask him a question, pretending to be a bit stupid. Miletus would answer. Then I would ask him another question, making him think about whether his answer was as sensible as he had thought. It usually wasn't!"
So pretending to be stupid was a trick?
"Oh yes. By asking lots of questions about people's answers, I made them see how they couldn't be right."
But if lots of people were watching, wouldn't it have been embarrassing for Miletus?
"That was the trouble. Some people thought I was making a fool of them, especially if they were important city officials! They got jealous too, because the young men of Athens were listening to me, not to them."
I can see they wouldn't like that.
"So they took me prisoner and put me on trial. They accused me of not believing in the Greek gods, and of putting wrong ideas into the minds of young people. I told the jury that I was acting for the good of the state and the people of Athens, whom I loved."
But they didn't accept that?
"No, they just wanted to get rid of me. And because I wouldn't go away from Athens, they gave me a horrible punishment."
Oh no! I can hardly bear to hear this!
"They told me I had to drink hemlock."
Hemlock? What's that?
"A plant. You can make a deadly poison from it. I got the hemlock myself, and called all my friends around me. Then I drank it - and of course I died."
But why did you have to die?
"I didn't have to. I chose that way, because I was not going to give in to their bullying - I stuck up for myself, and for what is right. Nobody should be punished for saying what they think."
Goodbye Socrates, thanks for explaining everything.
"Think nothing of it. I still like talking, even though I've been dead for about two and a half thousand years - who's counting anyway!"

PUT A SOCK IN IT, SOCRATES!

Now let me introduce a well rounded and very popular philosopher who lived in Athens at the same time as Protagoras. His main interest was OTHER PEOPLE. (Much good it did him, too!)
Let the great Socrates (Sock-rat-ees) speak for himself...

"If I had put a sock in it, I wouldn't have met the GRISLY END that I did!
"Spouting off in the Agora - that's the market-place to you - in Athens turned out to be a very dangerous hobby!
"If I'd stuck to growing flowers (waste of time), or making clay urns (tried that and they came out all wrong), or doing gymnastics (what, with my figure? I'd be a laughing stock), then I'd probably have lived to a ripe old age, and never got into trouble at all.
"But no - talking and thinking is what I was good at! I loved standing on the steps of the Temple of Zeus or sitting in a shady corner of the Agora, with a crowd of people around me, talking about right and wrong, good laws and bad laws - getting people to think for themselves instead of just accepting what they'd always been told.
Did they get sick of you, Socrates?
"Most people loved and respected me, but I had some enemies too. People who made the laws, important people who governed Athens...
"And the way they finished me off wasn't nice...!"

Socrates lived from 470 to 399BC so he came after the Very Ancient philosophers we've met so far. That's why they're often called the pre-Socratic philosophers, because they lived before Socrates. This shows what a famous and important philosopher Socrates was.
He was born in Athens, Greece, and his life was spent talking to people in the squares and market places. He loved city life.
"The trees in the countryside can teach me nothing," he said.
Socrates never wrote anything down.
But one of his young students, called Plato, later became very famous too. He wrote about all the things he had heard Socrates say.
Socrates enjoyed having discussions with people. In fact, he liked to have a good old argument. He would start by asking a question, as if he knew nothing. People would answer the question in different ways. Then, by asking more questions, he would get them to think more deeply and change their views. This kind of argument is called 'SOCRATIC DIALOGUE' after him.

Did you know that Socrates was quite ugly, with bulging eyes and a little round nose, a fat belly and flat feet?
Does that really matter? One of his friends said - 'You can look for him in the present or in the past, but you will never find anyone to equal him!' That's more important than what he looked like isn't it!
Find out what happened to Socrates next time!