Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Democritus had been trying to explain the diversity of nature.
The object of the studies of the Athenian philosopher Socrates (469-399) was altogether different: he was interested in ethics.
It was his axiom that no one would knowingly do a bad thing. So knowledge was important, because it resulted in good behavior.
If we are to believe his student Plato, Socrates was always asking people about what they knew, and invariably they had to admit that they did not really understand what was meant by words like courage, friendship, love etc. Socrates was never without critics.
The comic poet Aristophanes ridiculed him in
The clouds, and when his pupil Alcibiades had committed
high treason, Socrates' position became very difficult.
He was forced to drink hemlock after a charge that he had corrupted the youth. Among his students were Antisthenes, Plato and Xenophon.
The object of the studies of the Athenian philosopher Socrates (469-399) was altogether different: he was interested in ethics.
It was his axiom that no one would knowingly do a bad thing. So knowledge was important, because it resulted in good behavior.
If we are to believe his student Plato, Socrates was always asking people about what they knew, and invariably they had to admit that they did not really understand what was meant by words like courage, friendship, love etc. Socrates was never without critics.
The comic poet Aristophanes ridiculed him in
The clouds, and when his pupil Alcibiades had committed
high treason, Socrates' position became very difficult.
He was forced to drink hemlock after a charge that he had corrupted the youth. Among his students were Antisthenes, Plato and Xenophon.
