The Life and Works of Socrates

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Socrates, a Greek philosopher and teacher, was born June 4th, 469 BC in Athens, lived his life in Athens, and died in May 7, 399 BC. Because Socrates never wrote anything of his own, there is little evidence of Socrates life. Everything the world knows about Socrates comes mainly from the works of Plato, Aristotle, Aristophanes, and Xenophon. These works are mostly dialogues, plays, and historians’ notes. It is in the works and dialogues of two main witnesses that the life of Socrates has mostly been constructed. These two witnesses are Plato and Xenophon, both of which were students of Socrates. From these writings, we learn that Socrates’ father, Sophroniscus, was a stone cutter, or sculptor, and his mother, Phaenarete, was a midwife. He married Xanthippe, who was considered a shrew, and they had three sons, Lamprocles, Sophroniscus and Menexenus. All three sons were still very young at the time of Socrates’ death. Because she was so ill-tempered, Xanthippe was very difficult to live with and that Socrates had attested that having learned to live with Xanthippe, he would be able to cope with every other human being.

Socrates was known to live a noble life and died a courageous death. It is said that he devoted his live completely to seeking truth and goodness. However, it is unclear what Socrates did for a living, because for most of his life he did not work a real job or for anyone. It was also unlikely for him to have lived off of family inheritance because his father was an artisan. Also, it was said that Socrates didn’t accept money for teaching. Most probable was that it was possible that he may have lived off of his wealthy friends. According to Xenophon, Socrates stated that he devoted himself entirely to discussing a...

... middle of paper ...

...the one thing that he constantly claimed to have knowledge of was “ the art of love.” He also stated that the best way for people to live was to focus on self-development rather than personal wealth. He also believed that virtue was the most valuable of all possessions and that an ideal life was spent in search for the Good, and it is the job of the philosopher to show the rest how little they really know.

Works Cited

Kermerling, Garth. “Socrates.” The Philosophy Pages. 1996-2002. 7 Mar. 2006

http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/socr.htm

“Socrates.” The World Book Encyclopedia. Field Enterprises Educational Corporation,

1972.

“Socrates.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 8 Mar. 2006

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates.

“Socrates - A Biography of Socrates Life.” 2002 by Love To Know Corp. 7 Mar. 2006

http://www.2020site.org/socrates/index.html.

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