Socrates (469–399 BCE)

Abstract We know little about Socrates, who so changed the course of philosophy that those who preceded him are called Presocratics. Tradition tells us one way Socrates differed from those predecessors is that he wrote nothing. Our knowledge of him, therefore, is unavoidably mediated: we know Socrates only through others, three of whom – Aristophanes, Plato, and Xenophon – knew him personally and confront us with differing and potentially unreliable evidence. Aristophanes is an obvious, if friendly critic, and Plato and Xenophon present themselves as defenders of Socrates. We might also look to scattered remarks of Aristotle and other Greek authors and to the reports handed down by later generations – Cicero, for instance, and Diogenes Laertius – but discovering the “historical Socrates” has long posed a challenge for scholars.