Socrates is arguably the most influential

philosopher of all time.

His ideas not only changed the course of history,

but laid the groundwork for what is today

considered Western philosophy.

So who was Socrates?

Well, Socrates was born in 469 BC, and spent

nearly all of his life in Athens, Greece.

The city was then at the center of Greece’s

‘Golden Age’, a time of rapid development

and democratization.

He was a soldier, then a stonecutter, before

devoting his life to being a philosopher,

which literally means “lover of wisdom”.

But little else is known about Socrates’

upbringing, or the rest of his life, because

he didn’t actually write anything down.

In fact, everything we know about him is through

the writings of his contemporaries, most famously

his student, Plato.

Plato published a series of ‘dialogues’,

in which Socrates deliberates with politicians

and townspeople in Athens.

In one of Plato’s most famous works, the

Symposium, Socrates and his interlocutors

[in-ter-loc-u-tors] discuss the nature of

love.

Socrates claimed that everything he knows

about love was taught to him by a wise woman

named Diotima.
According to Diotima, love is neither physical

or divine, and it cannot be described as good

or beautiful.

Instead, love is the the desire for something

- it is the spirit of seeking something - like

people, objects, children, or beauty.

Socrates concludes that his relentless pursuit

of ideas makes him a lover of knowledge.

Socrates had plenty of ideas, but he didn’t

claim to actually know anything.

In fact, he famously said [quote] “true

knowledge exists in knowing that you know

nothing”.

In an attempt to uproot ignorance, which he

saw as a danger to society, Socrates acted

as Athen’s ‘gadfly’.

That is, he went around the city pressing

people on their beliefs, ultimately exposing

that they knew nothing.

This process of gradual questioning - more

commonly known the socratic method - is perhaps

Socrates’ greatest contribution to the academic

world.’

It is used as a form of critical discussion

in English and Law classes, and its influence

led to the invention of the scientific method,

which is similarly based on challenging hypotheses

in an attempt to question their validity.

Socrates forced Athenian politicians and social

elite to question their own truths, and in

more than one instance, publicly embarrassed

them.

He was also an open critic of the city’s

newly formed democracy, as he said it would

ultimately lead to the election of tyrants.

As you can imagine, this didn’t go over

well in Athens, and Socrates was very unpopular.

In 399 BC, he was charged with not believing

in the Athenian gods and using his ideas to

corrupt the youth and was sentenced to death

by poison.

But Socrates didn’t resist the verdict,

as it was part of the social contract he had

tacitly accepted by being a citizen of Athens.

Socrates forever changed what we think of

as Western philosophy.

What was once an attempt to understand the

world around us is now largely an examination

of our inner motivations and values.

Socrates’ method of relentless hair-splitting

paved the way for other historical gadflies,

like Martin Luther King, to be vocal critics

of their own political system.

But because Socrates never wrote anything

down and rarely revealed his own opinions,

historians have struggled to come to a consensus

on even his most fundamental teachings and

biographical events.

Plato’s dialogues are the most comprehensive

account of Socrates’ beliefs, however some

scholars suspect them to be Plato’s own

ideas, relayed through his teacher.

To this day, it’s still unclear whether

we really know anything about Socrates at

all.

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As an intellectual center for philosophers,

Athens, Greece played a pivotal role in the

rise of Western philosophy.

But has Greece remained an influential country

in the world?

Exactly how powerful is Greece?

Find out in this video.

Most of the economy is based on the service

sector as well as merchant shipping and tourism.

Greece's important past and large number of

UNESCO world heritage sites make it an extremely

lucrative tourist destination.

Tourism brings in roughly 15% of the country's

total GDP.

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