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The Oracle of Delphi called Socrates the wisest man alive — and he died drinking hemlock for it. This lecture from Academy of Ideas follows the two great events that defined his life: that famous riddle, and his trial before Athens. From the divine pronouncement, Socrates built a lifelong mission to wake people from the cave of their own ignorance. He faced the charges with unbroken courage, argued he was a gift to the city, and met death convinced that the exam life was the only one worth living. It is philosophy not as theory, but as a way one actually dies.
Full Video Transcript
In this lecture we are going to examine the life of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates.
Socrates was born in Athens in the year 469 BC and died in 399 BC, executed by the Athenian state on
the charges of religious impiety and corruption of the youth. Some scholars have suggested that due
to the Socratic problem, which was discussed in the first lecture of the series, these few facts
are all we really know for certain about Socrates. As a quick reminder, the Socratic problem arises
because Socrates supposedly wrote nothing down, and therefore in order to obtain knowledge about
his life we must rely on other sources. Yet the sources we have offer differing and sometimes
contradictory depictions of Socrates, and hence there is confusion regarding what is fiction and
what is fact. Although little is known for certain about Socrates’ life, there are two events in
particular which are most often regarded as being on the side of fact, while also being viewed as
events of monumental importance in the life of Socrates, and it is these two events which
will occupy our attention for this lecture.
The first event concerns Socrates’ reaction to the oracle at Delphi which pronounced he
was the wisest of all men.
An oracle is a religious shrine and sanctuary, and Delphi was an ancient Greek settlement.
To the ancient Greeks, Delphi was thought to be the center of the world, a feeling which
had its origins in ancient Greek mythology.
According to myth, Zeus sent out two eagles from the ends of the universe to find the
navel of the world, and in Delphi is where they met.
The oracle at Delphi was devoted to the god Apollo.
Inscribed on the outside of the temple were the words, Know Thyself, a saying often misattributed
to Socrates.
People travelled from all over ancient Greece to visit the priestess of the oracle, the
Pythia, in hopes of attaining wisdom and guidance.
The Pythia bestowed on Socrates the title of the wisest man in the world, which was
to prove extremely influential in the course of Socrates’ life, as it was through his
attempt to uncover the true meaning of such a declaration that Socrates was led to discover
his life’s mission, and in turn this life’s mission, as we will see shortly, led directly
to the second monumental event in his life, that being his trial and subsequent execution.
We must note that Socrates did not visit the Oracle himself, but instead one of his friends
traveled to Delphi and passed on the Pythia’s Oracle to Socrates.
When the news of this reached Socrates, he was astounded.
In Plato’s Apology, he described his reaction.
When I heard about the oracle’s answer, I said to myself, what does the god mean?
I am only too conscious that I have no claim to wisdom, great or small.
So what could he mean by asserting that I am the wisest man in the world?
In order to try and discover the meaning of such a declaration, Socrates took to the streets
of Athens, certain that he would soon find a man wiser than himself.
He engaged in conversations with politicians, poets, and craftsmen, and these conversations
soon led him to have an epiphany regarding the meaning of the oracle.
As he explained, the realization dawned on him when conversing with a politician.
When I conversed with him, I thought this man seemed to be wise both to many others
and especially to himself, but that he was not.
And then I tried to show him that he thought he was wise, but was not.
Because of that he disliked me.
But I went away thinking to myself that I was wiser than this man.
The fact is that neither of us knows anything beautiful and good, but he thinks he does
know when he doesn’t, and I don’t know and don’t think I do.
So I am wiser than he is by only this trifle, that what I do not know I don’t think I
do.”
The meaning of the oracle was that mankind is universally ignorant of the one thing it
is most important to know, that is, how to conduct their lives virtuously so as to attain
happiness.
Socrates was no exception, as he too admitted that he did not know anything beautiful and good.
Yet Socrates was the wisest man because he alone was aware of his ignorance.
As A.E. Taylor pointed out,
Socrates is the one exception.
If he too does not possess this supremely important knowledge,
he knows its importance, and he knows his own ignorance of it.
He is at least the one-eyed in the kingdom of the blind, and the wisest of men as men go.
Upon understanding the true meaning of the oracle,
Socrates made it his life’s mission to make others aware that they were living in a cave of ignorance.
In the hope that once they realized they were lacking knowledge of the most important thing in life,
they would join him in his philosophical quest for wisdom,
or in other words, knowledge of how to live the good life.
While some took kindly to Socrates’ life mission,
most of the Athenians could not endure his critical questioning without becoming defensive and angry.
It is not surprising that over time Socrates developed a rather poor reputation among the masses.
This disdain felt for Socrates by the general citizenry of Athens is often suggested to be one of the factors that resulted in charges being laid against him in the year 399 BC.
The official indictment against Socrates was as follows.
Socrates is guilty of refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state and introducing other, new divinities.
He is also guilty of corrupting the youth.
The penalty demanded is death.
Many scholars believe that in order to understand why Socrates was brought to trial,
one needs to take into account the state of Athenian society at this time in history.
Athens at the turn of the 4th century was in a very precarious and fragile state.
Having recently been defeated by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War,
a war which had ravaged Greek civilization for decades,
the city was facing an intense period of decline.
The citizens longed for a scapegoat on whom they could blame all their troubles,
and Socrates, who garnered so much animosity, appeared to be the perfect scapegoat.
Socrates seems to have been well aware that the animosity felt towards him
was a main reason for him being charged,
and this can be seen in a statement he made at his trial.
Well, gentlemen, I am no criminal.
That needs no long defense from me to prove.
However, when I said some time ago that I was heartily disliked by many,
you may be sure that it is quite true, and this is what will convict me.
Rather than being a criminal, Socrates in fact argued that he was a gift of God to the city, sent to improve the lives of the Athenian citizens.
If they condemned him to death, he foretold that they would continue to live out their lives in a waking slumber, forever remaining ignorant of their ignorance.
You can easily kill me, he told the judges, then you can go on sleeping for the rest of your lives.
lives. Despite his appeals, Socrates was found guilty. Although the penalty demanded was death,
according to Athenian law, the accused could propose an alternate penalty. It is said that
if Socrates had recommended exile, such a punishment would have been readily accepted.
But Socrates maintained that he had done nothing wrong, and that instead of being punished,
he should be awarded free meals at the Praetanium, the religious and political center of Athens,
a privilege reserved for those who brought honor and benefit to the city.
It is not surprising that the judges were insulted by this recommendation,
and subsequently condemned Socrates to death by drinking hemlock.
After the verdict had been announced, Socrates issued this warning to the citizens of Athens.
I wish to prophesy to you who have sentenced me to death.
I prophesy to you that after my death the punishment will soon descend upon you,
a punishment far more severe than that which you have inflicted on me.
You will have caused my death, hoping in vain to escape from my critical questioning.
When Socrates drank the hemlock, he supposedly did so joyously and courageously.
His last words were,
Crito, we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Pay it without fail.
Asclepius was the Greek god of healing.
When an Athenian was cured of a serious disease,
they paid tribute to the god by sacrificing either a sheep or a rooster.
But Socrates was not sick, so why was he paying tribute to the god of healing?
Socrates thought that to be alive in some sense was a sickness and while we can make strides to make ourselves healthy
It is only in death that we are truly cured
Source: Academy of Ideas