Biography Socrates - the embodiment of the views of the thinker

The son of the Athenian mason and midwife, who was born, apparently, in 469 BC, became known to the whole world. The biography of Socrates, the "father" of idealistic philosophy, is available to us from several sources. First of all, it is the work of his follower Plato, who wrote "The Apology" of his teacher, as well as the work of Xenophon. The very hero of our article did not write any works, but was satisfied with the conversations with his listeners. He believed that in this way he develops the art of thinking in them . In addition, the biography of Socrates (or rather, some data about it) can in part be restored from the comedy Aristophanes "Clouds". However, in this work, a caricature of a famous thinker is read, which the Greek author confused with his rivals - representatives of the sophist school.

The famous Athenian philosopher, who was called the "oak" of the Athenians, lived in the era of the Peloponnesian wars. At the peak of his contemporaries, the Sophists, he did not call himself a sage. He invented the word "philosophy." That is, Socrates believed himself a lover of wisdom, saying that he does not know anything for certain, and only that he knows for sure. He criticized the principles of democracy of the native Greek policy, many were unsuccessful, angered eminent citizens and blasphemy charges and eventually was condemned to death. In a few words, his brief biography. Socrates, despite such meager information about him, gave birth to a whole school of philosophical thinking, which in Soviet textbooks was called "objective idealism."

The main difference between the Athenian "gadfly" and the sophists was that he considered it important not only the subjective factor in cognition ("man is the measure of all things"), but also objective. The last he believed Reason. It is he, "Nus" - this is a substance of divine origin in the human brain, and he is the judge of everything subjective. Thanks to Reason, truth is available to us. Otherwise, everyone will remain at their own opinion, and there can not be a common goal. The guarantor of approaching the truth is Daimonion (inner voice, conscience). The creativity of the philosopher was his own life. Socrates's biography shows us that he took his views seriously. Philosophy, from his point of view, is the art of living right. Therefore, the main subject of reflection should not be ontology (what and where it happened), but ethics.

However, the biography of Socrates also says that the question of cognition was also one of his priorities. We must seek the essence, discover the common from the multitude. But this induction is good only for ethics, for it is so possible to know only oneself and develop one's virtues - restraint, justice, courage ... Only in this way can we achieve the common goal of humanity - the absolute good. Many Socrates biographers believed that he was an "ethical rationalist." After all, the philosopher believed that if you know about virtue, then you can practice it. To do this, there is a method that Socrates "peeked" at his mother - mayevtika. This is a kind of dialectic, with which you can push the interlocutor to the fact that he himself has found the right answer.

Among the many students of Socrates was the politician Alcibiades. Rumor has it that he was carnally in love with the philosopher, but the latter rejected his proposal. He believed that all bodily relations hindered such virtue as restraint. Socrates saved this politician and commander during the battle with the Spartans, armed only with a cudgel - none of the soldiers did not want to kill an unarmed philosopher.

But friendship with Alcibiades had a bad effect on the fate of the thinker. The political situation in Athens changed, the politician fell into disfavor, and Socrates was accused of not honoring the gods and corrupting the youth. The philosopher was very proud during the trial and claimed that he was not worthy of punishment, but of higher honors. However, he was sentenced to death. As a free man, he drank the poison himself (by the way, not the cicatoo, as the legend claims, but obviously the infusion of the hemlock) and thanked Asclepius (god of healing) for recovery. So the thinker expressed his desire to get into a better world than the one in which he lived before. This happened in 399 BC. The philosopher Socrates, whose biography was briefly described in this article, made exemplary and instructive not only his life, but also death.