Socrates and Plato notes

• looked to science and logic (not the mythological gods) for explanations of how the world worked
• the Socratic Method fostered critical thinking

• “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
• Socrates was charged with serious crimes
• impiety (disrespecting the gods)
• corrupting the youth of Athens
• at his trial, he described himself as a stinging gadfly, and Athens as a lazy old horse
• did not deny what he had done; asked for free dinners
• found guilty by an Athenian jury, and sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock (nasty way to go)

• Plato was a student and follower of Socrates
• he wrote out Socrates’ teachings, and described his trial in Apology
• Republic was Socrates’ discussion of justice and the ideal state - one of the most influential books on philosophy ever written
• Aristotle was a student of Plato
• he helped foster the idea of Athens as an intellectual destination
• his school - the Lyceum - focused on cooperative research - building on knowledge gathered from all over the world