Socrates is one of the few individuals whom one could say

has so-shaped the cultural and intellectual development of

the world that, without him, history would be profoundly
different. He is best known for his association with the
Socratic method of question and answer, his claim that he
was ignorant (or aware of his own absence of knowledge),
and his claim that the unexamined life is not worth living,
for human beings. He was the inspiration for Plato, the
thinker widely held to be the founder of the Western
philosophical tradition. Plato in turn served as the teacher
of Aristotle, thus establishing the famous triad of ancient
philosophers: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Unlike other
philosophers of his time and ours, Socrates never wrote
anything down but was committed to living simply and to
interrogating the everyday views and popular opinions of
those in his home city of Athens. At the age of 70, he was
put to death at the hands of his fellow citizens on charges
of impiety and corruption of the youth. His trial, along with
the social and political context in which occurred, has
warranted as much treatment from historians and
classicists as his arguments and methods have from
philosophers.