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The Great Philosopher – Socrates
Socrates was a great philosopher in Greece.
About four hundred years before Christ, there lived a man in Greece
whose name was Socrates. Little is know of his parents or childhood. He left nothing of his thoughts or speeches in writing. It was his disciple, the great philosopher Plato, who wrote Socrates’ teachings and ideas.
Socrates’ one great love was to look for the truth in very sphere of life. He believed in thinking and finding the reason for every thing. He liked to talk to those were learned. He would first listen to them carefully and then ask questions. Soon scholars found that they had answers.
People in those days were very superstitious. They had blind faith in their many gods. They believed that thunder was due to the anger of the gods. Socrates taught them that it was nothing but nature. He told his followers not to accept anything to be true just because many people thought it was so. One must use one’s mind and think. The method of trying to discover the truth by asking questions became knows as the `Socratic method’.
The powerful class did not like Socrates. In his search for truth he did not spare any one. He was frank and bold. His questions made the rulers nervous. They thought that he was challenging their authority and misguiding the people. They asked Socrates to change his ways, but Socrates believed that he was right and they were wrong. He was put into prison but he remained firm in his beliefs.
When the authorities failed in their effort to change Socrates they sentenced him to death. Socrates gladly agreed to drink a cup of poison rather than give up what he thought was right. He died in 399 BC at the age of seventy.
Published: October 12, 2009
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