Socrates

Socrates was born in 469 B.C. in Athens, Greece, a flourishing and remarkably vigorous city-state. The Greek theater had already produced the noted dramatist Aeschylus and would soon see the comedies of Aristophanes and tragedies of Sophocles and Euripedes. The Greek armies had defeated those of the much larger nation of Persia, and Athens was on the verge of attaining naval control of the Aegean Sea.
In his use of critical reasoning, by his unwavering commitment to truth, and through the vivid example of his own life, fifth-century Athenian Socrates set the standard for all succeeding Western philosophy.
As he grew older, Socrates began to question the conventional beliefs held by his fellow Athenians. He would haunt the streets of Athens, buttonholing powerful men and asking them irreverent questions about their opinions. To those who pretended to know about justice, for example, he would ask: "What is justice? What does it mean? What do all just acts have in common?" Si...