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The story of Socrates

Dr. M. V. Kamath

My dear Gauri

The Buddha lived about 500 years before Christ. Socrates came a little later (469-399 B.C.) and lived in the great age of Greece after two Persian invasions had been repulsed.

At that time Athens, presently the capital of Greece, was a small country town but still the centre of the Greek world. The Athenians had achieved a high degree of civilization with popular representation in local government. They were great talkers and when they wanted to exchange ideas they would gather at the market place and there, in the halls, or under the colonnades, or in the open air parliament (of which every grown man of Greek origin was automatically a member), they talked and argued, tried law suits and generally enlightened themselves.

Now Socrates was a stone mason and carver who believed that he had a divine right to test all statements. So he found delight in questioning public and private citizens, arguing with them at length to test the validity of anything they said. This is called the Socratic dialogue. The only trouble was that, in the process of arguing, he made many enemies!

Like the Buddha, Socrates did not write anything himself, but he had a brilliant pupil, Plato (427-347B.C.), who had set up a school of philosophy in an olive grove on the outskirts of Athens, known as the Academy, and who remembered the words of Socrates and set them down into a more or less complete system. So what we know of Socrates comes to us through Plato.

If you keep challenging everything and everyone, a day will invariably come when your popularity will be reduced to zero. And that is what happened to poor Socrates. When he was nearly 70 years old he was accused of impiety and of corrupting young people. The charge was serious and the case went to ‘court’.

The ‘court’ consisted of 501 Athenian men who were chosen by draw of lots. There was no judge or jury. The majority opinion among the 501 prevailed. Socrates argued his own case very brilliantly, but the ‘court’ by a vote of 281 to 220 adjudged Socrates guilty of the charge. The law required the guilty to propose his own penalty, but his chief accuser, a man called Meletos, demanded the death penalty. The law itself did not prescribe any penalty and the ‘court’ was free to choose between what Meletos proposed and any alternative Socrates cared to suggest.

Socrates told the ‘court’ that he had no money to pay as a fine. Banishment , perhaps, No, said Socrates, at his age, he had no desire to be constantly moving from place to place. He could not stop arguing either. As he put it, a life without inquiry was not worth living. Besides, if he promised not to talk, nobody would believe him anyway. But if pay he must, he would propose a fine of thirty minas of silver and his friend Crito, Critobulos and Apollodors would stand surety.

But the ‘court’ was after his blood. He had annoyed too many Athenians and, after some further discussion, they voted to condemn Socrates to death. That did not in the least worry Socrates who was fully prepared for the eventually. He told his accusers that if they believed that by putting men to death they would stop everyone from reproaching them because they were wrong, they were making a great mistake. As for him, in death he hoped to meet great men of the past like Homer and Ulysses. And in that place where they lived, surely no one would be put to death for asking inconvenient questions?

He was quite philosophic about his impending end and took leave of his accusers saying: “And now it is time to go, I to die and you to live, but who of us goes to a better thing is unknown to all but God!”

What a brave man was Socrates! In jail his friends called on him on the day he was condemned to die by taking poison. Instead of being upset or miserable, Socrates calmly discussed with his friends the nature of the soul, of truth etc.

He was to drink poison at sundown, but minutes before the due time, he called for the cup saying that there was no point in clinging to life. When it was brought to him, he drank the poison fearlessly without trembling or showing any signs of distress. He was only worried that he may not have offered the Gods a proper libation.

At this point he heard the wailing of women. “What a scene!” said Socrates. “One must make an end in decent silence”: and so the women were sent out.

As the poison began to take effect, Socrates lay down and uncovered his face. He summoned his friend Crito and said “Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepois, pay it without fail”. “That indeed shall be done”, replied Crito. “Have you anything more to say?” There was silence. From Socrates there was no reply. He was dead.

What a brave and wonderful man was Socrates! No one remembers the name of his accuser Meletos. But Socrates lives forever as a philosopher who put his right to ask questions even dearer than life itself.

In my next letter I shall write to you about a remarkable man called Kautilya who is talked about to this day.

Your loving 

Ajja