[METHODS IIN PHILOSOPHY: LECUTURE 2: SUPPLEMENT‹SOCRATES‹]

SOCRATES (469/68 - 400/399 B.C.)

Socrates was born in Athens as a son of Sophronicus who was supposed to be a stone mason, while his mother Phénarété was a midwife according to Plato's Theaetetus. Instead of succeeding his father's trade, Socrates became a philosopher. Socrates, being extremely philosophically inclined, i.e., he was deeply in search of wisdom (love of wisdom = philo-sophia) throughout his entire life. According to Plato, Socrates thought that he inherited his mother's profession of midwifery and he thought that the philosopher could be only a midwife for wisdom. For, as according to Socrates, philosophy, Love of Wisdom, cannot equip the philosopher with knowledge or wisdom, nor the philosopher can teach his students by providing them with wisdom and knowledge, as philosophy is the pursuit of knowledge which is only possible by being aware of one's lack of knowledge and wisdom. Thus, Socrates characterized the role of a philosopher as the midwife of wisdom and knowledge, namely the philosopher can only help the youth and others assisting them to have their own philosophy born and develop, and not impart any knowledge or skills to others like in the other scientific disciplines or arts.

Socrates must have come from a rather well-to-do family because he served as a fully armed hoplite, and he must have been left sufficient inheritance to enable him to serve in the military. Socrates indulged himself in philosophical inquiry.

Socrates, unlike other philosophers, did not leave even a single book.

The sources of Socrates' image and accomplishments are 1) Plato, a great philosophe