Celebrated Athenian Philosopher
Socrates was
born in Athens, the son of a sculptor and a midwife.
He was provided with a good education and while
trained in his father's profession, he took an intense
interest in philosophy. He was drafted to serve in the
army several times but took no part in public life. He
was capable of withstanding much physical hardship. He
dressed very simply, always went barefoot and he ate
very simply.
Socrates left no writings and he is known only
through information furnished by two of his pupils,
Plato and Xenophon. Sarton states that "there is no
man of antiquity whom we know better, for thanks to
Plato's art and to Xenophon's goodheartedness we can
almost see him and hear him talk."
Sarton calls Socrates "the first semanticist
explaining to people with whom he talked the danger of
using big words or abstract words of which they did
not grasp the meaning".
Socrates in 399 B.C. was indicted as follows:
"Socrates is guilty of rejecting the Gods
acknowledged by
the State and of bringing in strange deities. He is
also
guilty of corrupting the youth."
As a result he took a poison herbicide, the dried
unripe fruit of Conium maculatum. Conium
contains not less than 0.5% conitine, an alkaloid
containing proplpyridine.
Although it has been argued that Socrates'
influence on the science of his time was
"catastrophic," Sarton declares that this was only
true on the surface but not so in reality. The
philosophers preceding Socrates produced speculations
based upon lack of sufficient knowledge and had not
approached the various scientific problems in
astronomy and meteorology according to the best
scientific methods. Socrates ideas were basic to the
future progress and development of science. He
insisted upon clear definitions and classifications.
Sarton characterizes the situation as follows: "There
is no point in discussing if we do not know as
correctly as possible what we are talking about. That
is fundamental in science, even more than in
philosophy."
In the second place Socrates proceeded by
questioning and discussion to reach logical
conclusions. Thirdly, he had a great sense of duty and
respect for the law. Sarton concludes that "the
healthy growth of science requires moral purity,
truthfulness, individual and social discipline. The
bad citizen cannot be a good scientist. Finally his
rational skepticism formed the basis for scientific
research. The scientist must discard prejudices and
superstitions if he is to undertake successfully the
solution of scientific problems. In these respects
Socrates was far ahead of his time. It has also been
stated that he originated the endless quarrel between
"pure and applied" science.
Sarton, A History of Science,
Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece,
page 272.
