People, I need you to answer some questions

1. Who was Socrates? 2. What is the Socratic method? 3. What were some of the things that Socrates is thought to have believed? 4. Why was Socrates put to death by the people of Athens?

I'm not looking for this information, I need to find out how much of it 5-10 of you know. Obviously this is for a class. Go ahead and include age, gender, and occupation if you feel like it, otherwise I'll just make something up.

Age: 52

Gender: Female

#1 Greek Philosopher

#2 Leading the student to the answer by asking them questions; the student ideally will realize what the answer is without needing to be told what it is by the teacher.

#3 Don't remember

#4 I believe the charge was "corrupting the youth of Athens".

edited 8th Oct '11 10:37:07 AM by Madrugada

Damnit I read Mad's post and now I can't answer properly.

Age: 17

Gender:Male

Occupation: Student

1: An Athenian 5th century BC philosopher.

2: A dialogue where one person keeps asking about the others belief until the other knows what he believes and why he believe these things.

3: He believed that the source of all evil was ignorance. If someone does something bad it is because he doesn't know that it is bad.

4: He was put to death (or forced to drink poison) for corrupting the youth and blasphemy.

edited 8th Oct '11 9:49:13 AM by honorius

Just some additions as the other's answers cover mine pretty much.

1. Together with his student Platon and further him his student Aristoteles they are regarded as the founders of western philosophy. Also near everything we know about Sokrates stems from Platon's writings.

2. If I don't confuse something, it's also known as the elenctic.

3. "I know that I know nothing."

Sorry. I've put my answers in spoilers.

1. Greek philosopher concerned mainly with morality and human beings.
2. Asking successive layers of questions in order to, ultimately, find out exactly how little someone really knows about a subject.
3. Morality is absolute, the pursuit of knowledge is worthwhile for its own sake, "an unexamined life is not worth living" (unexamined in the moral sense), most respected Athenians are respected because they seem respectable and not because they actually deserve honor.
4. The charges were "corrupting the youth of Athens", but really he was on trial for proving that last point rather too well. That isn't why he was killed; he was killed because at trial he unrepentantly defended his actions and would not apologize or ask for mercy.

Socrates was the name of an old computer based learning interface for children <is shot>

In all seriousness, Greek Philosopher who never wrote anything down-got Plato to do it. Famously said "The man who knows most is the man who knows he knows nothing" or some such. The Socratic method is ... basically a bunch of rhetorical questions I guess? "So then, is the sky blue? Then, if the sky is blue, then s not BLAH BLAH BLAH" I never really understood the real meaning of that. Lesse... Yeah, I guess the knowing nothing part?

And of course, he was put to death for subverting the youth. Because, you know how it is.

1. father of Greek philosophy, not the first guy to do it but pretty much the Trope Maker or Trope Codifier.

2. the way he did it, involving asking silly questions.

3. those he said in Plato's earlier works, because Plato over the years turned him into a literary character.

4. he was also the father of trolling.

Higher education-level age.

Yack Fest is on the other way of the forums.

Age: 25
Sex: Male
Job: About to start an internship in new product development and quality control.
Background: Degree in science. Took one semester of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education, which is where I learned the most about Socrates.

1. Who was Socrates? A Greek philosopher who taught Plato.

2. What is the Socratic method? A teaching method in which, rather than simply telling the student the truth, the teacher prods them into figuring out the answer for themselves. Socrates, believing that his ideas were no more intrinsically correct than those of anyone else, used it to force his students to come up with logically rigorous philosophical ideas and constructs. Today, however, it is primarily used by a teacher to guide a student to the correct answer by asking pointed questions. At least, that's how I used it.

3. What were some of the things that Socrates is thought to have believed? Tricky. Socrates wasn't a fan of writing; he believed that true knowledge could only be gained by logical deduction by oneself, and that reading something in a book wasn't the same. Everything attributed to Socrates today comes from the writings of Plato, who was not above putting his own words in Socrates' mouth.

As I said, Socrates disdained writing, and believed that the best path to knowledge was logical thought and rational conversation with other philosophers. It was also important to find holes and flaws in the philosophical positions of others, so that a logically rigorous worldview would ensue.

Yeah, I don't really know anything about Socrates' other beliefs.

4. Why was Socrates put to death by the people of Athens? I believe it's because he constantly criticised them, though I've also heard both heresy and sedition levelled at him.

17-year-old male.

Who was Socrates?

Plato's teacher. The Socratic Method was his greatest invention, but also his downfall as a philosopher—whenever he had an idea, he applied his own method to it, and he often realized that it contradicted itself.

2. What is the Socratic method?

Take someone else's idea, and keep asking questions, until you prove that they've contradicted themselves—for instance, if someone believes that the law must always be relied on instead of force, you get them to say that force is sometimes necessary to enforce the law.

3. What were some of the things that Socrates is thought to have believed?

If I recall correctly, he came up with the allegory of the cave, which Plato expanded upon.

4. Why was Socrates put to death by the people of Athens?

"Socrates went around telling people the truth. They poisoned him." Seriously, The Cartoon History Of The Universe blames it upon his unintentionally influencing the actions of tyrants like Critias. The official charge was "corrupting the youth of Athens."

BTW, I'm quite disappointed that nobody else quoted that meme.

edited 8th Oct '11 4:48:49 PM by feotakahari

Gender: Female
Age: 18
Occupation: Full-time student.

1. An ancient greek philosopher and teacher.

2. The method of teaching through asking questions.

3. Unsure.

4. Hrm...controversial opinions? I know he drank hemlock as his method of suicide/execution.

edited 8th Oct '11 5:06:10 PM by Katrika

55 male Bookseller

1) Greek philosopher 400 BC

2) Asking questions

• versus a cobbler: Why are you cutting leather? To make sandals. Why? To sell them. Why? To buy food. Why? To feed my family. Why? Because, I love them. Why? Because that's what people do. Why?

• Because when we were Ants, we were good ants and we got reincantated as good people? Why?

3) Socrates hated the Athenian Democracy, his ideal state was ruled by a Philosopher King and a ruling class of Guardians who are raised in vats and educated in state ideology.

4) Corruption of Youth + Blasphemy = Hemlock

Peloponesian War 430 -400 BC ish, between Democratic Athens and Aristocratic Sparta. Socrates' doctrines supported Sparta, among Socrates' disciples were Alcibiades and Critias. Alcibiades was a general who led the Athenians to defeat and defected to Sparta and Persia. This defeat led to Sparta invading and occupying Athens and installing a quisling government the Thirty Tyrant led by Critias.

edited 9th Oct '11 2:55:43 PM by Trotzky

Without reading previous answers:

Male / 26 / engineer

1. Who was Socrates? He was an ancient Greek philosopher.

2. What is the Socratic method? Sadly, I can't remember.

3. What were some of the things that Socrates is thought to have believed? Also can't remember.

4. Why was Socrates put to death by the people of Athens? Because he was seen as a dangerous element. If I remember correctly the used the fairly popular badly influencing the younger generation argument.

edited 10th Oct '11 10:24:00 AM by Luxa