The controversial life and tragic death of Socrates, the father of western philosophy

Socrates entered the world during a period of Athenian prosperity and cultural achievement.

His father, Sophroniscus, worked as a stonemason or sculptor, and his mother, Phaenarete, practised midwifery.

The family belonged to the hoplite class, which included those citizens able to equip themselves for military service.

As a boy, Socrates likely received an informal education appropriate to his class, including instruction in music, literacy, and physical training, though no direct evidence confirms the details of his schooling. 

In his early years, he followed his father’s trade. Later sources such as Pausanias credited him with sculpting a statue of the Graces, though this tradition remains uncertain and likely doubtful.

His standard of living showed modesty, and he appeared indifferent to wealth or political advancement.

Socrates married Xanthippe and reportedly fathered three sons, although ancient sources confirm only one son with certainty and reveal little about his domestic life.

During the Peloponnesian War, he served as a hoplite in campaigns at Potidaea, Delium, and Amphipolis.

In difficult conditions, he demonstrated both bravery and endurance. At Potidaea in 432 BCE, he reportedly saved Alcibiades' life.

At Delium in 424 BCE, he stood firm during the retreat and demonstrated discipline under pressure.

On those campaigns, his conduct gained the attention of fellow soldiers and future political leaders.

Those key experiences formed his public character well before he became known for philosophical inquiry. 

Eventually, Socrates turned away from manual work and began to engage in dialogue with others.

His encounters with poets, craftsmen, and statesmen revealed the gap between reputation and true knowledge.

After hearing that the oracle at Delphi had declared through the priestess that no man was wiser than he, Socrates looked into its meaning.

His friend Chaerephon had asked the question, and the answer puzzled him. He questioned others to find someone who could genuinely claim wisdom.

When none could, he concluded that he was wiser only in knowing his own ignorance. 

Instead of delivering lectures, Socrates developed a method of inquiry based on conversation and contradiction.

He tested the foundations of moral claims by using pointed questions. He insisted that wisdom must come from logical examination rather than popular belief.

According to Socrates, those who claimed certainty about justice, courage, or piety rarely understood what those ideas required.

In dialogues such as the Euthyphro, he challenged confident assertions about piety and revealed the limits of usual understanding.

His probing conversations exposed the limits of human knowledge. For his followers, Socrates became a guide to deeper understanding.

For his critics, he appeared to cause confusion and unsettle civic order. Over time, both views gained support in the city. 

In his search for truth, Socrates refused to accept inherited customs without careful examination.

He taught that wrongdoing resulted from ignorance rather than wickedness, and that knowledge led to virtue.

This idea conflicted with common attitudes about justice, which focused on punishment and public order. 

On religious matters, Socrates stated that a divine inner voice warned him against certain actions.

He considered this daimonion a personal guide instead of regarding it as a conventional god.

To many Athenians, this private spiritual authority appeared to contradict accepted practices.

During a time of uncertainty, such behaviour raised questions about loyalty to the gods of the city. 

Indeed, his interactions with the political system drew attention, as he neither supported the democratic restoration nor cooperated with the Thirty Tyrants.

He refused the order to arrest a political opponent, which violated the law. In both regimes, Socrates upheld personal conviction rather than political convenience.

Among older citizens, his actions threatened unity. In the aftermath of war and revolution (including the oligarchic coup of 404 BCE and the democratic restoration of 403 BCE), such challenges created unease. 

Among his followers, several gained lasting fame. Perhaps the most significant was Plato, who recorded Socratic dialogues that examined topics such as justice and love as well as reflections on the soul.

In his writings, Socrates appeared as a voice of reason. He asked questions, which led others to confront their own uncertainty.

After Socrates’ death, Plato founded the Academy and continued to explore foundational and moral issues.

Through Plato, the later work of Aristotle also followed, which developed ethics and logic before addressing science in response to Socratic study. 

In contrast, another student named Xenophon offered a more practical portrait.

As a soldier and historian, he presented Socrates as a figure of restraint and good sense.

His writings focused on personal virtue as a guide to household management and an exemplar of public honesty.

Rather than examine abstract concepts, Xenophon showed how Socrates acted as a moral example in daily life. 

However, not all of Socrates’ students enhanced his reputation. Critias, who became one of the Thirty Tyrants, participated in executions and purges during a brief period of rule by a few.

Alcibiades, another former student, courted scandal and betrayal during the Peloponnesian War.

In the view of many Athenians, their actions raised doubts about Socrates’ influence.

In 399 BCE, Socrates was formally charged with impiety and corrupting the young.

The indictment claimed that he dishonoured the traditional gods, introduced new deities, and harmed Athenian youth with dangerous ideas.

At the time, Athens had only recently emerged from political violence and defeat that led to public shame.

As a result, the citizens sought to restore order and confidence in traditional values. 

During the trial, Socrates defended himself without apology. He claimed that his conversations helped the city, which revealed ignorance and which encouraged reflection.

He described his actions as a public service that promoted reason and truth.

According to him, his questioning improved the soul of the city far more than any political office could have. 

Instead of appealing to emotion, Socrates challenged the logic of the charges. He refused to flatter the jury or offer false humility.

As expected, this approach cost him support. The jury of 501 citizens convicted him by a narrow margin, with some sources suggesting a difference of as few as thirty votes.

Afterward, Socrates proposed an alternative punishment. Half in jest, he suggested free meals for life in honour of his service.

Unconvinced, the jury sentenced him to death. More jurors reportedly supported the death penalty than the conviction itself, according to Plato, which suggested that his defiance had hardened opposition. 

After the trial ended, Socrates remained in prison for several weeks while the city observed a religious festival.

During that time, his friends visited and urged him to escape. He declined their offers, arguing that disobedience to the law would contradict everything he had taught.

According to him, justice demanded respect for legal procedures, even when the result proved unjust. 

Eventually, the time came for the sentence to be carried out. Socrates drank the cup of hemlock prepared for him.

The poison, likely Conium maculatum, produced numbness and paralysis, which began in the feet and then rose through the body.

As the hemlock took hold, he continued to speak with calmness and clarity. He reminded his companions of a debt owed to Asclepius, the god of healing, and asked that it be repaid, perhaps suggesting that death itself was a cure for the soul.

His calm acceptance of death confirmed his teachings on the soul, duty, and virtue. He was about seventy years old. 

From that moment onward, the death of Socrates became a symbol of philosophical integrity.

In later centuries, his trial raised questions about democracy, moral courage, and the limits of free expression.

Thanks to the various accounts of his students, he came to be remembered for his refusal to abandon reason in the face of punishment rather than for his defeat.