Socrates was a Greek philosopher who denied material pleasures and sought higher knowledge through questioning people on their positions. He taught in Athens without accepting payment, instead discussing philosophy in the streets with students. Socrates developed his elenchus method of questioning beliefs and examining inconsistencies. This questioning led to his trial and death sentence by drinking poison hemlock, though his teachings lived on through his students Plato and Aristotle.

1. By Eduard Grigoryan
Los Angeles Valley College 2012

2. Socrates was a Greek LIFE
philosopher who denied the
pleasures of life and sought
higher knowledge.
He didn’t have a job other
than teaching, yet he
refused to take money from
his students. So, he walked
the streets of Athens
discussing philosophy with
his pupils.
God, must he have had a
loving and patient wife!!!

3. PHILOSOPHY
Socrates never wrote
anything in his life.
His method of philosophical
inquiry consisted in
questioning people on the
position they asserted and
working them through
questions into contradiction.
That method is called
elenchus.

4. Socrates himself claimed to know nothing at all
except that he knows nothing.
WHAT???

5. SOCRATIC
DIALOGUE
Socrates liked to
question
everything, love, truth
, law, religion, good, a
nd evil.
He engaged his
fellow Athenians in a
series of
discussion, acting as
a listener and asking

6. One of his most famous arguments is described by his
student, Plato, in his work Euthyphro. In the
Euthyphro, Socrates asks his opponent, are things good
because gods like them or gods like them because they
are good? Yes, Socrates now questions piety and
morality.

7. But some people didn’t like Socrates for asking too many
questions. In the end, he was accused of corrupting the
youth, atheism, and attacking traditional institutions. He was
brought to trial where he had to defend himself.

8. DEATH
Socrates was too stubborn
and refused to apologize for
his crimes. He proposed
lifetime pension and dinners
at government’s expense as
his punishment. Angered
jury sentenced him to death
through drinking poisonous
hemlock.

9. Before taking poison, Socrates
famously says: I am not afraid to die;
if my spirit lives after death, then I
will just go and have conversations
with smart people who died before
me; if death is like a never ending
sleep, well, I like to sleep.
He takes the poison and dies.

10. Socrates’ teachings and philosophy long outlived their creator.
Socrates’ student, Plato, will write The Republic, find the
Academy, and develop the dialectic method of philosophy.
Plato’s student Aristotle will become the father of rhetoric, and
a mentor to Alexander the Great. And we all know what
Alexander did. Besides, Socrates was one of the first
philosophers to boldly question the religion and meaning of
life. His significance is so great that in modern-day scholars
divides Ancient Greek philosophy into pre and post Socratic.
THE END

11. REFERENCES
1. Communicating Critical Thinking. Jack Sterk, Jim
Marteney, 2008. pp 22-23.
2. Marx for Beginners. Rius. 1997, New York. pp. 45-46
3. Socrates. A Man of Our Times. Paul Johnson, 2011.
pp. 23-26
4. Euthyphro. Plato.
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/euthyfro.html
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