The Socratic view of the world

A brief overview of the philosophy of the most famous philosopher

Socrates and Confucius, two of humanity’s sages, amiably conversing in the Athenian agora, just below the Acropolis. Photo by the Author.

When someone mentions “ancient Greek philosophy,” chances are Socrates is the first name that pops into your head. In fact, this barefoot philosopher from Athens (470–399 BCE) was such a game-changer that we still divide Western philosophy into two eras: before Socrates and everything after. But what made him so special? As the Roman philosopher Cicero would later put it:

“Socrates was the first who brought down philosophy from the heavens, placed it in cities, introduced it into families, and obliged it to examine into life and morals, and good and evil.” (Tusculan Disputations, 5.4)

Socrates never meant to start a movement — he was more interested in having good conversations than founding a school. But his impact was huge. Think of him as the philosophical equivalent of a rock star — everyone wanted to copy his style. His followers went on to create some of history’s most influential schools of thought: Platonism, Aristotelianism, Cynicism, Stoicism, and Academic Skepticism. The Stoics especially saw themselves as Socrates’s true heirs, referring to themselves explicitly as “Socratics.”

Here’s where things get interesting: Socrates himself never wrote anything down. Everything we know about him comes…