Socrates for Teachers

This chapter introduces Plato’s Socrates and his philosophy. The nearest we can get to authentic Socratic thought is in Plato’s earlier dialogues where he presents the views of his tutor in powerful dramatic form. Socrates embodies in his life, and death, a commitment to freedom of speech that was not shared by the polis of Athens (or by most people today). Sections of Plato’s dramatic dialogues are presented at length to illustrate his life, his commitment to argument and to examining all beliefs however strongly held. Socrates embodies the critical spirit and the understanding that freedom of speech was the only way to knowledge. To convince anyone of the power of Socrates’ thinking and his moral example cannot be achieved through any introduction. The success of this chapter will be decided by those who go on to read the dialogues. If you stop here and pick up and read any of the Socratic dialogues, the Apology, the Crito, the Phaedo, the Protagoras, the Meno, or the Theaetetus then you will know the man without any intermediary other than Plato. The lesson of this chapter is: ‘always study the original texts’.