Socrates {excerpts}

Of all the teachers that history has known, Socrates was (in the words of his contemporaries) “the wisest, the most courageous and the most upright.” To him are traced back the diverse schools of philosophy, such as Platonism, Scepticism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Cynicism. Very aptly, he is called the philosophers’ philosopher. Socrates was a brave soldier, a stone-cutter, sculptor; but above all he was a great teacher.

Over four hundred years before Christ, Socrates roamed the streets of Athens with a shabby robe over his broad shoulders, conversing animatedly with young men, asking them one question after another. Intellectual giants of the time, such as Plato, Xenophon too were drawn by his charisma into fascinating arguments. Socrates was a born teacher with the knack of arousing an insatiable curiosity, and at the same time serving as a gadfly to the powers that be.

His teaching method of asking questions rankled many. One, Hippias, raged at Socrates’ elusiveness on the subject of justice: “By Zeus, you shall not hear my reply until you yourself declare what you think justice to be; for it is not enough that you laugh at others, question others, while you yourself are unwilling to give a reason to anybody and declare your opinion on any subject.” To such outbursts, Socrates replied simply: “The reproach which is often made against me that I ask questions of others and have not the wit to answer them myself is very just. The reason is that God compels me to be a midwife, but forbids me to bring forth.”

During his defense when on trial for his life, Socrates, according to Plato's writings, pointed out that dissent, like the gadfly, was easy to swat, but the cost to society of silencing individuals who were irritating could be very high. "If you kill a man like me, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me," because his role was that of a gadfly, "to sting people and whip them into a fury, all in the service of truth." This may have been one of the earliest descriptions of pragmatic ethics.

The Socratic method (also known as method of elenchus, elenctic method, Socratic irony, or Socratic debate), named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas. It is a dialectical method, often involving an oppositional discussion in which the defense of one point of view is pitted against the defense of another; one participant may lead another to contradict himself in some way, thus strengthening the inquirer's own point.

Epistemology i/??p?st?'m?l?d?i/ (from Greek ?p?st?µ? (episteme), meaning "knowledge, understanding", and ????? (logos), meaning "study of") is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge.[1][2] It addresses the questions:
What is knowledge?
How is knowledge acquired?
To what extent is it possible for a given subject or entity to be known?
Much of the debate in this field has focused on analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notions such as truth, belief, and justification. One view is the objection that there is very little or no knowledge at all—skepticism. The field is sometimes referred to as the theory of knowledge.

"Socratic dialogues", which generally portray Socrates engaging in the method and questioning his fellow citizens about moral and epistemological issues.

Socrates beliefe in the 'One God' {He is supposed to have heard a Voice} not the many of his time.
In this present life I believe that we most nearly approach knowledge when we have the least possible bodily concerns and are not saturated with the bodily nature, but keep ourselves pure until the hour when God himself is pleased to release us.

[Society's leaders] must be able to see the one in the many, to appreciate and realize the great truth of the unity of all virtues, have a genuine knowledge of God and the ways of God, and must not be content to rest on faith in traditions, but must really understand. Only in this way can they order all things for the benefit of all {while religions are many and seemingly diverse, goodness and kindness are forever one.}

… Socrates repeatedly invokes not only gods, but “the god”, as in this famous passage from the Apology: “Athenians, I honor and love you, but I shall obey the god rather than you” (29d). Socrates further asserts that he has been specially chosen by “the god” to persuade the people of Athens of their ignorance (23b) and that abandoning this mission would mean also abandoning his god (30a)…

"I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know."


				*Socrates {excerpts}*