Plato among his students, Pompeian mosaic, National Museum, Naples Appendix I A Synoptic Essay on Socrates It (the true soul) is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice of the mystic. — Sri Aurobindo One of the greatest of the Greeks was Socrates who is known as the father of Philosophy. His early life is not much known but he must have lived a disciplined life right from early boyhood. We are told that he had a great power of endurance and could bear extreme cold and heat. He was a sturdy soldier and had shown remarkable skill and valour in several battles

Illumination, Heroism and Harmony Preface The task of preparing teaching-learning material for value- oriented education is enormous. There is, first, the idea that value-oriented education should be exploratory rather than prescriptive, and that the teaching-learning material should provide to the learners a growing experience of exploration. Secondly, it is rightly contended that the proper inspiration to turn to value-orientation is provided by biographies, autobiographical accounts, personal anecdotes, epistles, short poems, stories of humour, stories of human interest, brief passages filled with pregnant meanings, reflective short essays written in we

Fragment of pottery on which an Athenian citizen could scratch the name of the man he was voting to ostracize, that is to say, to send into exile. Appendix III A Detailed Chronology 490 BC — The 1st Persian war, the Persian army led by Darius is defeated by the Athenians in the battle of Marathon. 480 BC — The 2nd Persian war, the Persian army led by Xerxes is defeated in the Bay of Salamis by the Athenian forces. 469 BC — Birth of Socrates. 461 BC — Pericles rises to prominence as a leading statesman of Athens. 463 BC — Cimon, leader of the oligarchs, is ostra

HOME

Socrates Introduction Who was Socrates? A stout man with a flat face, broad nose, thick lips, heavy beard, shabby clothes and an unduly large paunch, which he hoped to reduce by dancing this is how Socrates has been described. Not a very flattering description of a man commonly considered the founder of Western philosophy. Although far from the Greek ideal of beauty, his face shows the honesty, courage and humour which has come to be called "Socraticˮ. Plato speaks of him as all glorious within¹ while Alcibiades, another disciple of Socrates, compares him to a statue of Selinus ² ugly on the outside but full of beautiful golden statues of the gods inside³

Appendix IV Famous Quotations from Socrates The unexamined life is not worth living. All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine. I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance. I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing. I am the wisest man alive; for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing. True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. A life unexamined is unworthy of a man. As for me, all I know is that I know nothing. Page - 150 True wisdom come

The Death of Socrates by French painter Jean-Louis David (1748-1825) Phaedo Plato PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: PHAEDO: who is the narrator of the Dialogue to Echecrates of Phlius. ECHECRATES SOCRATES APOLLODORUS SIMMIAS CEBES CRITO ATTENDANT OF THE PRISON SCENE: The Prison of Socrates PLACE OF THE NARRATION: Phlius Page - 91 ECHECRATES. Were you yourself, Phaedo, in the prison with Socrates on the day when he drank the poison? PHAEDO. Yes, Echecrates, I was. ECHECRATES. I should so like to hear about his death. What did he say in his last hours? We were informed that he died by ta

Apology Plato I do not know what effect my accusers have had upon you, gentlemen, but for my own part I was almost carried away by them; their arguments were so convincing. On the other hand, scarcely a word of what they said was true. I was especially astonished at one of their many misrepresentations: I mean when they told you that you must be careful not to let me deceive you the implication being that I am a skilful speaker. I thought that it was peculiarly brazen of them to tell you this without a blush, since they must know that they will soon be effectively confuted, when it becomes obvious that I have not the slightest skill as a speaker unless, of cou

Appendix II Trial of Socrates In Athens, the jury system was introduced simultaneously with Athenian democracy in 590 BC. A council called Areopagus consisting of elected aristocrats, ran both the government as well as the court. Pericles and his predecessor Aphialtes, had accomplished one of the greatest reforms in the judicial system that of .transference of the judicial powers from this council of aristocrats, to the heliaea, a law council consisting of 6000 jurors, annually drawn by lots from the citizen's register. Only male citizens over thirty years of age were permitted to volunteer for jury duty. Women and slaves as well as alien residents were not