SOCRATES IS FOUND GUILTY
The Athenians needed a scapegoat. Politically, the city's fortunes were at a low ebb in 399 B.C.E. after a humiliating defeat, five years before, at the hands of its traditional enemy, Sparta. There was one man in Athens who had made himself a reputation for being awkward- the great Philosopher Socrates. He liked to ask difficult and irritating questions; he mocked those in power and spent his time debating ideas with a band of devoted pupils. He was also known as an associate of some of Athens's discredited leaders. So Socrates was put on trial, charged with not believing in the gods and with corrupting the young men of Athens. Socrates 's famous pupil Plato left an account of his trial, in which he states that Socrates could have saved himself by paying a fine, but instead refuse to answer the charges against him, claiming he had done nothing wrong. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock, a toxic herb that paralyzes the nervous system. Still debating questions such as the immortality of the soul with the friends who had gathered around him, Socrates took the poison calmly from the executioner and drunk it in one swallow. Death followed quickly.
Socrates was one of the most significant thinkers in the course of history and, with Plato and Aristotle, was largely responsible for founding Western philosophy. He was interested in the values that make people act as they do, yet left no writings of his own. Most of what we do know of his teachings comes from the Dialogues of Plato.
The Athenians needed a scapegoat. Politically, the city's fortunes were at a low ebb in 399 B.C.E. after a humiliating defeat, five years before, at the hands of its traditional enemy, Sparta. There was one man in Athens who had made himself a reputation for being awkward- the great Philosopher Socrates. He liked to ask difficult and irritating questions; he mocked those in power and spent his time debating ideas with a band of devoted pupils. He was also known as an associate of some of Athens's discredited leaders. So Socrates was put on trial, charged with not believing in the gods and with corrupting the young men of Athens. Socrates 's famous pupil Plato left an account of his trial, in which he states that Socrates could have saved himself by paying a fine, but instead refuse to answer the charges against him, claiming he had done nothing wrong. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock, a toxic herb that paralyzes the nervous system. Still debating questions such as the immortality of the soul with the friends who had gathered around him, Socrates took the poison calmly from the executioner and drunk it in one swallow. Death followed quickly.
Socrates was one of the most significant thinkers in the course of history and, with Plato and Aristotle, was largely responsible for founding Western philosophy. He was interested in the values that make people act as they do, yet left no writings of his own. Most of what we do know of his teachings comes from the Dialogues of Plato.
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