# Socrates Philosophy I · Ancient Philosophy: From the Milesians to Plato · https://tryals.app/learn/philosophy-i/socrates ## The Examined Life Socrates wrote nothing. Everything comes through others — Plato, Xenophon, Aristophanes — and they disagree, which is the **Socratic problem**: separating the historical man from Plato's mouthpiece. The rough consensus is that the early dialogues, which end without conclusions, are closest to him. His method is the **elenchus**, or refutation. He asks someone confident to define a term, piety, courage, justice. They offer a definition. He draws consequences from it, together with other things they believe, and shows those beliefs are inconsistent. The definition is abandoned, another offered, and the process repeats. The dialogue characteristically ends in **aporia**: impasse, with no definition surviving. This looks purely destructive and is not. The elenchus shows that people who act confidently do not know what they are doing, and Socratic wisdom is exactly the recognition of that. The oracle at Delphi said no one was wiser than Socrates; he concluded, after examining people who claimed knowledge, that he alone knew that he did not know. Two doctrines are attributed to him. **Virtue is knowledge**: if you genuinely knew what was good you would do it, so wrongdoing is ignorance rather than weakness. This makes **akrasia**, acting against one's better judgement, strictly impossible, which is either a deep insight about the nature of knowing or a plain denial of the obvious, and the debate has never closed. And the **priority of the soul**: caring for one's soul matters more than reputation, wealth or even life, since "it is better to suffer injustice than to do it". He was tried in 399 BC for impiety and corrupting the youth, and executed. The charges were probably political, several of his associates had been involved in the oligarchic coup, but his defence made things worse: he refused to plead, proposed free meals at public expense as his penalty, and treated the trial as another occasion for examination. The permanent shift is one of subject: from what the world is made of to **how one should live**, pursued by argument rather than authority. > **Common pitfall:** reading Socratic ignorance as false modesty or a debating tactic. He means it. Recognising that you do not know is the only wisdom available, and everything in the method follows, you cannot examine a belief you are certain of. ## Practice questions 7 of this lesson's 11 practice questions, with answers. The full set is in the app. ### 1. Socrates was tried and executed in 399 BC. How many years ago was that, counting from the year 2000 AD? **Answer:** 2399 (within ±1) **Why:** $399 + 2000 = 2399$ years. The trial is among the best-documented events in ancient philosophy precisely because it mattered so much to those who recorded it. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/socrates/socrates-was-tried-and-executed-in-399-bc-how-many-years-ago-was ### 2. Why does Socrates conclude he is wiser than those who claim knowledge? A. He received his wisdom directly from the oracle B. He alone recognises that he does not know C. He has examined more subjects than they have D. He can refute any position put to him **Answer:** B. He alone recognises that he does not know **Why:** Examining people who claimed knowledge showed they did not have it either. The difference is that Socrates knows this about himself, and that recognition is the only wisdom he claims, everything in the method follows from it. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/socrates/why-does-socrates-conclude-he-is-wiser-than-those-who-claim-knowledge ### 3. The elenchus typically concludes in aporia rather than a positive definition. What follows from this outcome for someone attempting to live an examined life? A. It demonstrates that all pursuit of moral knowledge is futile B. It shows that conflicting beliefs can be resolved by compromise C. It proves that accepted definitions are merely socially constructed D. It provides the necessary clearance of false certainty to begin **Answer:** D. It provides the necessary clearance of false certainty to begin **Why:** Aporia is not nihilism, cultural relativism, or political negotiation; it is therapeutic. By exposing internal contradictions, the elenchus dismantles unexamined confidence, which Socrates regarded as the essential prerequisite for genuine inquiry into how one ought to live. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/socrates/the-elenchus-typically-concludes-in-aporia-rather-than-a-positive ### 4. Socrates held that it is better to suffer injustice than to commit it. **Answer:** True **Why:** True, and it follows from the priority of the soul. Suffering injustice harms your circumstances; committing it harms the thing that matters most. He accepted the consequence at his trial rather than escape it. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/socrates/socrates-held-that-it-is-better-to-suffer-injustice-than-to-commit-it ### 5. Arrange these events in the order they occurred. **Answer:** 1. The oracle at Delphi declares no one wiser than Socrates 2. Socrates examines those who claim knowledge and finds they lack it 3. He concludes his wisdom consists in knowing that he does not know 4. He is tried for impiety and corrupting the youth 5. He is executed after refusing to plead for his life **Why:** The oracle poses a puzzle, the examination resolves it, and the resulting practice, decades of public refutation, makes the enemies who bring the charges. The sequence is causal, not merely chronological. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/socrates/arrange-these-events-in-the-order-they-occurred ### 6. Which claims are attributed to Socrates? A. Virtue is a kind of knowledge B. The good life consists in the accumulation of honours C. Wrongdoing results from ignorance D. Caring for the soul matters more than reputation or wealth **Answer:** A. Virtue is a kind of knowledge; C. Wrongdoing results from ignorance; D. Caring for the soul matters more than reputation or wealth **Why:** Virtue as knowledge, wrongdoing as ignorance, and the priority of the soul are the three central attributions. The pursuit of honours is precisely the life he questions in his fellow Athenians. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/socrates/which-claims-are-attributed-to-socrates ### 7. Sort each statement by whether it is a fair or unfair characterisation of the elenchus. **Answer:** - Fair characterisation: It works from the interlocutor’s own beliefs, It typically ends without a surviving definition, It shows that confident people cannot say what they are doing - Unfair characterisation: It is purely destructive and achieves nothing, Socrates uses it to advance doctrines of his own **Why:** The method is negative in form and not in value: exposing that confident people cannot justify what they do is a real result. And it advances no doctrine, which is what lets Socrates run it while disclaiming knowledge. Page: https://tryals.app/practice/philosophy-i/socrates/sort-each-statement-by-whether-it-is-a-fair-or-unfair