Socrates: An Influential Greek Philosopher

Socrates was a very influential Greek philosopher and is responsible for the Western systems of logic and philosophy today. He lived in Athens and he treated the place like his classroom in a way that he like to talk to people and teach them the right of way of doing things. This, however, made him people unpopular among the citizens of Athens and, as a result, he was on trial to be put to death. Socrates finds himself in a situation where he has a chose to have it easy or have it the hard way. He came up with a defense speech that would explain the reasons why he should live and not die. He, however, takes an unexpected path and the results were astonishing.
Socrates was accused of two things the first one was that he corrupted the youth and that he didn't believe in God but rather in his own divinities. He develops a defense speech and explains why he was found to be the wisest man on Earth. He started by saying that a friend of his, named Chaerephon went to the oracle of Delphi and asked him if anyone was wiser than Socrates, the oracle replied, "that there was no man wiser" (Jowett, 2014). This made Socrates uncomfortable and went out to disprove what the oracle had said. Along his journey, he encountered many people that thought they were wise and Socrates was willing to learn from them. He first chose a politician to examine his actions and …show more content…
One of the quotes, that is worth examining is, "the unexamined life is not worth living" (Jowett, 2014). I think what he meant by this is the only purpose of human existence is for personal and spiritual growth. What helps us grow is taking the time to reflect upon our lives in a way that we see what we did right and wrong and strive to become better. Socrates knew that sometimes it was hard to reflect one's life and for that reason he went out to talk to people privately so that they can have someone to talk