Socrates

Socrates is a famous philosopher who lived in Ancient Greece and he had set up the basics of Greek philosophy. He was born in 470BC in Athens as a son of a stonecutter and a midwife.

His life as a philosopher started after his journey to Delphoi Temple, there he begun to wonder about what is right and what is wrong. He was said that he was the cleverest man living however, only thing he knew that didn't know a single thing; on the other hand, he knew that god wouldn't lie; so he begun to question people, who thought they knew everything. First he questioned politicians than poets and finally craftsman and he realized that they weren't wise and they didn't even know that. People who were questioned by Socrates thought they knew things that they actually didn't know. However, on the other hand, Socrates did knew that he didn't know and understood that he was wiser than the others, not because of what he knew but because of what he didn't knew. And this made him understood that what was told to him in the temple was right, he was wiser than the people who accuses himself to be wise.

“As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.”Socrates He was to be seen asking people questions such as what if good & bad is or what if moral is, what if virtue is and etc in the middle of the street while walking bare foot. By asking questions, he realized and made people realize that they were ignorant, which people didn't like at all.

"Yes, and I loathe that poverty-stricken windbag Socrates who contemplates everything in the world but does not know where his next meal is coming from."Eupolis

For Socrates an unexamined life doesn't worth living. Because this is the most disrespectful thing that a person can do to his/her soul an as him/herself. Every person living in a society lives as others wants him/her to live. Parents, neighbors, friends and etc., everybody has an opinion about how someone should live. However, it may not be the best option for the person. A human being shall examine his/her life and live as he wishes, rather than living as other wish. Socrates says that a person should know himself, and make others know him as well. A person should be able to look in himself, without anybody else forcing him and see what he wishes to be, see who he is, he was, he will be. Only way to the happiness is by knowing yourself, and then people & nature around you. A human being should be able to make his own decisions, and do whatever it takes reach them, if he wants to be happy.

“A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.” Socrates

For Socrates happiness is making and reaching the decisions that you make. However, again Socrates thought that not everybody is able to decide what his/her decision should be, because they didn't have the virtue for that. So basically he was saying that people should make their own decisions although they weren't always able to choose what is good or bad for them, because sometimes their feelings makes them unable to make a correct decision. However, Socrates helps them for this dilemma; for Socrates the best thing that a human being can do is having a good morale. For him, a good morale completes a person's soul and makes him/her happy - or as he calls it eudaimonia. When a human being reaches eudaimonia there is nothing else he can do to change his happiness as no one wants to be unhappy, and everybody agrees that everybody wants to be happy as it is the nature of human.

For Socrates knowledge is a key to happiness; however, not every kind of knowledge makes us happy. Person should has the idea, and how & when to use it which leads us to virtue. For example a human may know the idea of a table but this is not enough to make a table. A person shall also know the idea of wood and how to shape it; moreover he/she should know have some wood to use too. So virtue leads human being to happiness and it's knowledge that's achieved and used at the right time and place.

Although he was born in a city where people highly supported democracy and liberalism -for that decade- he never acted like big fan of democracy or liberalism; moreover, people thought he was against those values because he mentioned of a set of values which were against democracy and liberalism. He once said that ‘People are like herd of sheep that needed the direction of a wise shepherd.' and he believed that human beings didn't have enough virtue which was necessary to start and live in a good society. So he supported a ruler rather than democracy; because he didn't believe that all the people were wise enough and they didn't had the virtue too.

In his life, there were several times that citizens of Athens seriously suspected him of being against the democracy. First they suspected him when one of his students, Alcibiades and his man overthrown the government between 411-410 BC. Alcibiades wasn't only his student but also his favorite politician. Secondly, again his student Critias overthrown the government between 404 - 403 BC. Critias expelled and murdered tons of people including who would start and support the trial of Socrates.

However, the big deal is that, after these two incident, citizens begun to question Socrates and his teachings. People wondered if he was brainwashing their kids. Moreover, when Socrates was asked to catch Salamis, who took part in the second riot, he refused to help. He said that he couldn't caught Salamis because of his good moral, which shocked people. On the other hand, he didn't either helped Salamis. He basically did nothing, he didn't helped citizens to catch Salamis, however, he didn't helped Salamis to run away, moreover, he didn't even tell anything to Salamis about the fact that he would be caught and hanged. But because of this, people changed their point of view…

When people lost their trust in Socrates, people begun to blame him and after this, he had put on trial for teaching young citizens against democracy and making them changing their minds about god and making them atheist. However, Socrates refused all of the accusations and he said those were all lies that were made up by people who didn't like him.

"These people are ambitious, violent, and numerous; they are continually and convincingly talking about me; they have been filling your ears for a long time with vehement slanders against me" Socrates

In his trial he asked to be treated as a normal citizen since he was one. He said although he was accused to be a master of the words, he would use basic language since it was the only language that he knew, and he asked forgiveness for that.

Later on he addressed the true reasons of the trial, why people actually sued him. He asserted that the trial had nothing to do with the atheist youth or anti-democratic students he said to raise, but the people, who felt uncomfortable about being questioned by Socrates. People don't like to understand or to be shown that they are ignorant or anything. Moreover, he said that only reason that he questioned people was that, he was said to be wise by a priest and he was trying to proove the priest's idea, so basically he wasn't serving against got, but serving to god. And he added, he knew there was a risk at what he was doing but he took the risk and did what he tought was right.

"In my investigation in the service of the god I found that those who had the highest reputation were nearly the most deficient, while those who were thought to be inferior were more knowledgeable...

... if you think that a man who is any good at all should take into account the risk of life or death; he should look to this only in his actions, whether what he does is right or wrong, whether he is acting like a good or a bad man” Socrates

He always said that he never brainwashed anybody, however, people who blamed him, had brainwashed everybody.