Basic philosophical ideas and works of Socrates, Plato and Xenophon. Basic philosophical ideas and works of Socrates, Plato and Xenophon General characteristics of the teaching

Everyone has sunshine in them!
Socrates once said
a heart beats in everyone
and there is kindness in everyone

I'm a midwife
- I give birth to a Soul
the awakened one looks sweet
and smiles and remains silent

But the rulers of Athens
They are in a hurry to execute Socrates...

https://www.site/poetry/1130013

Socrates said: “Know yourself!”
And no matter how much Man learns from century to century,
But the philosopher's gaze is always
Directed to the starry world and to the soul of Man.

He was wise, and did not say out of modesty,
What he knows is that he knows nothing.
I doubt it...

https://www.site/poetry/1146686

Is he rich and does he have any other advantage that the crowd extols” (Plato, “Symposium”). They came to us in different ways Socrates his friends and students. Once, having talked with a young man he didn’t know, he asked: “Where should you go for flour and butter... that belonged?” Calling this remembering, we would probably use the right word"(Plato, Phaedo). Help Socrates in recall consisted of another skill, very rare now - the ability to listen. Listening, hearing...

https://www.site/journal/141381

When important people in people's lives and in human society become the subject of active discussions. No matter what scientists say, Socrates left a cultural heritage that directly or indirectly teaches a person how to behave. GNOTHI SE AFTON: Know yourself Many... these words from the Greek are: “I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” I understand it like this: Socrates does not mean that he knows nothing, but that one cannot know anything with absolute certainty, although we can be sure...

https://www.site/journal/115037

The artistic design can see this; there is a hidden voice in them that constantly talks about the purpose for which it is work art was created. Sometimes the artist is not aware of his creation. He follows his imagination; he may act against his own... he may cause an action that he would not want for himself or for the person for whom it is work intended. Once I visited a temple. I could not call this temple beautiful; but he was wonderful...

https://www.site/religion/12475

A successful test launch of the Bulava ICBM was carried out

The command of Captain First Rank Oleg Tsybin successfully launched the newest ballistic missile "Bulava" from the White Sea at the Kura training ground in Kamchatka. Start produced from an underwater position as part of the state flight testing program for the complex. The trajectory parameters were worked out as normal. The warheads successfully arrived at the Kura training ground...

Socrates was born in 469 BC. e. in a village on the slopes of Mount Lycabettus, from where at that time it was possible to reach Athens on foot in 25 minutes. His father was a sculptor, and his mother was a midwife. At first, young Socrates worked as an apprentice to his father; some researchers believe that Socrates created the sculpture “The Three Graces”, which decorated the Acropolis. He was then sent to study with Anaxagoras.

Socrates continued his studies with the philosopher Archelaus, who, according to Diogenes Laertius, the author of biographies of famous philosophers, lived in Sweden. Don. e., “loved him in the worst sense of the word.” IN Ancient Greece, as, indeed, now in the eastern Mediterranean, homosexuality was considered as a completely common manifestation of sexual life. This continued until Christianity imposed restrictions on this custom, establishing it as the norm. sex life heterosexual contacts. Therefore, Anaxagoras, who taught that the Sun is a luminous star, had to flee from Athens to save his life. But Archelaus remained free, freely indulging in the pleasure of mental communication with his students, which sometimes, however, went quite far.

Together with Archelaus, Socrates studied mathematics, astronomy and the teachings of ancient philosophers. By that time, philosophy had been developing for a little over a century and was something like the nuclear physics of its time. And in fact, the world of philosophy (which consisted entirely first of water, then of fire, then of luminous elements, etc.) bore the same relation to the world of reality as the world of modern nuclear physics now relates to our own everyday reality. We hardly believe that our encounters with mesons are the highest point of our daily existence, and there is a suspicion that the ancient Greeks were just as indifferent to the latest discoveries of that time - that their world, in fact, was a kind of aquarium with goldfish, a melting pot stove or constant fireworks.

Socrates soon came to the conclusion that thinking about the nature of the world would not bring any benefit to humanity. Surprising as it may be for such a rational thinker, Socrates can paradoxically be considered an opponent of science. In this he was probably influenced by one of the greatest pre-Socratic philosophers - Parmenides of Elea. Socrates, in his youth, is said to have met the aging Parmenides and “learned a lot from him.” Parmenides resolved a fierce dispute between those who believed that the world consisted of a single substance (the same as water or fire), and those who, like Anaxagoras, believed that the world consisted of many different substances. Parmenides won in this irreconcilable dispute: he simply did not pay any attention to him. According to Parmenides, the world we know is just an illusion of the eye. Our reasoning about what the world consists of has no meaning, because it itself does not exist. The only reality is the eternal Divinity - infinite, unchanging, indivisible. For this Deity there is neither past nor future: it includes the entire universe and everything that can happen in it. “All in one” - this was the basic principle of Parmenides. The ever-transient multiplicity that we observe is but an appearance of this unchanging, all-encompassing Deity. This attitude towards the world is hardly beneficial to science. Why care about the affairs of this world when they are just a trick of the eye?

In those distant times, it was believed that philosophy studied all knowledge (in Greek, “philosopher” means “lover of wisdom”). Mathematics, science and cosmology did not exist as such; for many centuries they were considered part of philosophy. And only in the 17th century. Newton gave his main work the title Philosophicae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (“Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”). Only after many years did philosophy finally come to be seen as the study of metaphysical - and therefore unresolved - questions. In those cases where philosophy actually managed to find answers to questions, it ceased to be philosophy, turning into a separate subject, for example, mathematics or physics. The last such example can be considered psychiatry, which claimed that it could provide answers to many questions, after which it became an independent science. (In fact, psychiatry does not meet the philosophical requirements of science... The implication is that science must always be built on certain principles that can be tested experimentally. As for psychiatry, such requirements cannot be met here due to the lack of clear criteria for describing phenomena such as paranoia, dementia and other forms of psychopathy.) In the time of Socrates, this entire field was, of course, considered part of philosophy (and the citizens of Athens perceived philosophers in much the same way as people perceive psychiatrists today). Socrates' attitude to philosophy was, of course, psychological in the original sense of the word (in Greek, "psychology" means "the study of the mind"). However, Socrates was not a scientist. Here the influence of Parmenides was felt, who considered reality to be nothing more than an optical illusion. This idea had a negative impact on Socrates and his successor Plato. Throughout their lives, several discoveries were made in mathematics, but only because it was considered timeless and abstract, and therefore associated with the divine essence. Fortunately, their follower Aristotle had a different attitude towards the world. He was in many ways the founder of science and brought philosophy back to reality. However, the unscientific - in fact, anti-scientific - approach developed by Socrates had a detrimental effect on philosophy, and it could not get rid of this influence for many centuries.

Largely due to the fact that Socrates took the position of an opponent of science, the few great scientific minds of Ancient Greece chose to create outside the framework of philosophy. So Archimedes (in physics), Hippocrates (in medicine) and to some extent Euclid (in geometry) worked in isolation from philosophy, and therefore from any tradition of the development of knowledge and argumentation. Ancient Greek scientists knew that the Earth was round and revolved around the Sun, and even knew how to calculate its circumference. They dealt with electricity, they knew that the Earth has a magnetic field. Finding themselves outside the “universal wisdom” of philosophy, such crumbs of knowledge based on facts were regarded as mere eccentricities. We owe a lot to Socrates for placing philosophy on a stable foundation of reason. However, the fact that philosophy developed under the auspices of this opponent of science should be regarded as one of the great misfortunes of mankind in the process of understanding the world. It is difficult to overestimate the significance of what we have lost. The mental energy that went into calculating the number of angels that could fit on the tip of a needle in the Middle Ages could have been used to study the atoms that Democritus was the first to talk about convincingly.

Socrates believed that instead of questioning the world, we should question ourselves. He appropriated the famous saying “Know thyself.” (Sometimes this saying is mistakenly attributed to Socrates. However, the expression itself could well have been coined by Thales, who is considered the first philosopher. It is also known that this saying was inscribed in the sanctuary of Apollo in Phocis, where the most famous oracle in Greece was located - Delphic.)

Socrates began to expound his philosophical teachings on the Agora - the market square of ancient Athens. These numerous ruins can still be seen below the Acropolis. Here, Socrates' favorite place was the Stoa of Zeus Eleutheria (Free), a shady colonnade crowded with shopkeepers offering their wares. The stone foundations of Stoy are still accessible to visitors today. The northern part of the base of Stoi is crossed by the always crowded Athens Piraeus metro line, and below, behind a wire fence, the peace of the ruins is disturbed by loud crowds, the sharp sounds of bouzouki and the loud calls of the owners of tents and stalls of the Monastiraki flea market. All this cannot be very different from the noise and din that most likely reigned here during the life of Socrates. We are faced with the task of imagining Socrates conducting conversations about wisdom among people who in those distant times bargained much like jeans traders do now, amid the shouts of “Zorba the Greek” rushing from the Jewish quarters and among the plaintive and whiny howls of nut sellers. And despite this, someone must have managed to actually hear what Socrates had to say. Apparently, already in his youth, Socrates managed to cause a stir in Athens, since by the time he was thirty years old, the Pythia of the Sanctuary of Apollo of the Delphic Oracle had already proclaimed him the wisest of men.

Socrates said that it was difficult for him to believe this, sincerely saying his famous: “I only know that I know nothing.” In order to find out whether there was a grain of truth in the prophetic words of the Pythia fortuneteller, Socrates began to question the other sages of Athens, trying to find out what they knew. Socrates in those days was a master at exposing hypocrisy and error. He pretended to be ignorant and asked his interlocutor what exactly he knew. While his interlocutor was explaining this to him, Socrates managed to expose the delusions of his opponent by asking him tricky questions. It is not for nothing that Socrates became famous as the “Gadfly of Athens.” However, his method of asking questions was much deeper than it sometimes seemed at first. Socrates sought to clarify positions in the dispute by clarifying the basic principles from which the interlocutor proceeded. At that time, this meant identifying the basic concepts on which the thoughts of Socrates’ interlocutor rested, identifying inconsistencies in them, and most importantly, pointing out the possible consequences of such views. However, Socrates also closely followed the absurdities that his opponents uttered, and moreover, he did not deny himself the pleasure of driving his interlocutor into a dead end, exposing him to everyone’s ridicule. Most likely, he drove his conversation opponent to the brink of rage - slippery, brilliant, cunningly resourceful. And there is no doubt that such a character trait of Socrates as the ingenuity and resourcefulness of a clever man made him many enemies, as well as attracted to him numerous followers from among the youth of that time who were struggling with prejudices.

Soon Socrates was able to prove, to his great satisfaction, that the so-called wisest men of Athens actually knew nothing - just like himself. From this he concluded that the Pythia of the Delphic Oracle was right: Socrates was indeed the wisest man, since at least he knew that he knew nothing.

Most likely, Socrates really was reasonable and destroyed prejudices. That was his approach. However, in many ways he himself remained a product of his age. Despite all the banter, Socrates seemed to believe that the gods themselves spoke through the mouth of the Pythia of the Delphic Oracle. In addition, he firmly believed that “the soul is immortal and eternal, and after death our souls continue to exist in another world.” Although he spent most of his time trying to avoid the superstitious worship of the gods and the soap opera that was their mythology, he nevertheless believed that some kind of god did exist. He believed that everyone most likely believes in some kind of god - an interesting explanation from the lips of a man who spent his whole life trying to lead people out of their delusions.

However, Socrates' philosophy was not all about the rules of reasoning and the method of analysis. In it we also find a number of positive provisions, from which we can conclude that he, apparently, had his own experience of experiencing the tart taste of his own treatment with criticism. Thus, being the protagonist of Plato’s dialogue “Phaedo,” Socrates puts forward a theory of forms, or ideas. Many attribute its authorship to Plato himself, who supposedly only expressed it through the mouth of Socrates. However, when Plato wrote the Phaedo, all the other characters in this dialogue were still alive. So it can be assumed that, unless Plato had a desire to spend a lot of time in the courts, the views expressed by these actors are what they actually believed. And, most likely, they discussed them with the real Socrates. And although Plato based his dialogue largely on factual sources, it does not seem that he brought onto the stage a fictitious Socrates who spelled out views that he never held. Plato also notes that Socrates “often put forward these values.” Despite the fact that all this is quite obvious, the theory of forms is usually still attributed to Plato.

By doing so, the researchers seem to want to show how difficult it is to determine the authorship of ideas when a person does not write anything down (perhaps this is why many of us have been so astute in using this trick). One thing is certain about the theory of form-ideas: neither Socrates nor Plato were the first to come up with it. This feat is usually attributed to Pythagoras. As we have seen, Pythagoras' studies of musical harmony led him to the belief that the world was created from numbers. However, Pythagoras's understanding of numbers was in many ways closer to our concept of form. According to Pythagoras, abstractions such as number and form expressed the very essence of the real world. It was from these abstract ideas that the visible concrete manifestations of this world, subject to constant changes, were created. (Here we see a clear response to Parmenides’s idea that, ultimately, reality is a manifestation of the divine essence that unites the fragments of our illusory world into a single whole.)

In the Phaedo, Socrates describes the nature of the world of forms (or numbers, or ideas. He uses the Greek word "eidos". This is the original root of our word "idea", and it can be translated in different ways: form, idea, or, say, figure - and the concepts of number and form essentially coincide). According to Socrates, the world of forms is inaccessible to our senses, but is accessible only to human thought. We may think of concepts such as roundness and redness, but we do not feel them. With our senses we can only perceive a specific red ball. It is created from the concepts of “roundness”, “redness”, “elasticity”, etc. How does this happen? According to Socrates, individual objects acquire their properties from the ideas that gave rise to them. You can, for example, explain this through the image of a plaster cast, which takes on a certain shape. Abstract forms - in other words, ideas - give a specific object shape, size and other qualities.

The world of forms is the only real world that also has universality. In it, each individual form is different from the other. This world of forms has a hierarchy that reaches its peak in such universal ideas as Good, Beauty and Truth. By perceiving concrete objects, we get an idea of ​​such abstract qualities as kindness, beauty and truth. This is the secret-mystical attitude towards the world. It is consonant with the Hindu idea, from which it most likely originated - the idea that the world is a ghostly veil of Maya, which for good man becomes transparent. According to Socrates, these universal ideas are of paramount importance for the world, and a person perceives them through acquaintance with the real world.

Fortunately, such a confused doctrine, which neglects the specifics of the world in which we live, is not entirely devoid of accuracy, since number is here considered synonymous with these sublime ideas. The study of number as an essence is declared to be the main thing. Thus, mathematics was considered by the Greeks as an educational activity, although, of course, only in its pure form. Calculating the sum of the angles of a polyhedron was quite common. But finding out how many buckets it would take to fill a tank with water was considered something unworthy. In our material world this could well have practical benefits. Such an attitude inevitably oriented science towards the study of those aspects of reality that have little connection with the practical side of life. This situation persisted throughout the development of Western culture, and some of its manifestations can be found even today.

Socrates grew up in the age of Pericles. At that time, Athens was the most powerful and civilized city-state in the Hellenistic world, which had a huge influence on the entire course of human development. In addition to achievements in the field of sculpture, this era also saw the flourishing of democracy and the emergence of mathematical and scientific thinking. The appearance of Socrates marked the advent of the age of philosophy.

The era of relative calm that marked the age of Pericles came to an end. In 431 Don. e. The Peloponnesian War began. This destructive struggle between the almost democratic maritime power of Athens and the petty-bourgeois, militant Sparta lasted more than a quarter of a century. The war and its political consequences turned out to be very long and played a fatal role in the life of Socrates. It is worth remembering that precisely what seems boring and edifying to us in his philosophy arose in the struggle against constantly changing circumstances, against the background of blind fanaticism, sophistry and fear. The search for personal truth was carried out by Socrates in the age of the emergence of new values ​​and the fall of authorities. As for the moral climate of that era, it was, from our point of view, too recognizable.

When the Peloponnesian War began, Socrates was called to military service as a hoplite (a private third class who carried a shield and sword). There is much conflicting evidence about the life of Socrates. However, the one thing everyone seems to agree on is the appearance of Socrates, who was considered one of the ugliest men in Athens. He had long, thin and also crooked legs, a belly, hairy shoulders and neck, and among other things, he was bald (for this very head they called him a freak). He also became famous for his upturned nose, bulging eyes and thick lips.

In addition to the fact that Socrates himself looked like a philosopher, he also dressed like a philosopher. In winter and summer, he always wore the same shabby tunic, over which he wore a worn tunic half as long as usual. Moreover, in any weather he walked barefoot. According to his fellow sophist Antiphon, “a slave who was forced to dress like that would have run away long ago.” Despite all this, Socrates was apparently an excellent warrior.

Such eccentric geniuses are usually not very popular among the military. Nevertheless, Socrates was excellent at entertaining and amusing the soldiers. He took part in the siege of Potidaea in Northern Greece, where winters can be very cold, especially when the north winds begin to blow from the mountains. In winter, the ancient Greek troops actually turned into a motley rabble. The soldiers wrapped themselves in skins, wrapped their legs in pieces of felt and looked little like the slender naked youths during competitions in the form in which we see them on Greek vases. The soldiers probably had to laugh more than once to watch Socrates clumsily stomp his bare feet on the ice and snow at the parade in his holey tunic.

But it was especially funny to look at Socrates when he was “thinking.” Alcibiades, who served in the Potidaea campaign with Socrates, told how one day our philosopher woke up early in the morning and began to think about some extremely important question. For long hours, his comrades watched as Socrates stood nearby in a contemplative pose, completely forgetting about the world around him. During dinner he was still standing in the same place. Several of his compatriots were so puzzled that they decided to sleep in the air rather than in tents, just to see how long Socrates would continue to perform this performance. He stood all night until dawn. Then he went up to his people, read the prayer for the coming day and, as if nothing had happened, went about his business.

This is just one story about Socrates' ability to fall into a deep trance. In fact, it was this that led some commentators to suspect that Socrates suffered from some special form of catalepsy (tetanus). There is further evidence that Socrates heard certain “voices.” All this together may lead us to believe that he is mentally ill. Nevertheless, all the facts that have come down to us about Socrates confirm the idea that he was an eminently sound and balanced man. In fact, his philosophy often seems to be nothing more than a brilliant application of common sense, seasoned with a pinch of natural cunning.

However, a man who could fall into a trance when those around him were languishing in the boredom of military life, was also a brave brave man when circumstances demanded it. According to Alcibiades, Socrates once saw him lying wounded in the middle of a bloody battle. He lifted Alcibiades onto his shoulder and, carrying him through the ranks of armed enemy soldiers, saved his life.

Plato has a story about how young Alcibiades once fell in love with Socrates. It is difficult to imagine this, and one can only assume that Alcibiades had problems with his eyesight, although this is not mentioned anywhere. Alcibiades said: “When I listen to his voice, my heart beats much stronger than that of the raging co-ribantes” (Plato, Symposium, 215e). Such enthusiasm indeed suggests that the impressionable young man was amazed by the wisdom of Socrates. But that's not true. In a passage so beloved by classical gymnasium students (and severely censored by their teachers), Alcibiades describes how he tried to seduce Socrates.

At first, Alcibiades arranged for him and Socrates to spend the whole day alone and Alcibiades “was waiting for him to speak to him the way lovers speak without witnesses to those with whom they are in love” (Plato, Symposium, 217c) . However, Socrates stubbornly stuck to conversations about philosophy alone. Next, Alcibiades invited Socrates to the gymnasium. In those days, most athletic events were conducted in the nude, so Alcibiades must have thought that everything seemed to be going well for Socrates to accept his proposal. True, the thought immediately comes to mind of what bald, pot-bellied, bow-legged Socrates must have looked like when he stripped naked in the gymnasium. However, Alcibiades, apparently, was not disappointed by this spectacle that dispelled all sorts of romantic illusions, and he even managed to compete with Socrates in the game of “who will put who with one hand,” when there was no one else nearby. “That’s where it all ended” (Plato, Symposium, 217e).

Finally, Alcibiades decided to invite Socrates to dinner with him in order to get him drunk. He failed to do this (no one ever succeeded, no matter how much Socrates poured into himself), but Alcibiades “after dinner chatted with him until late at night, and when he was about to leave,” Alcibiades “referred to the late hour and forced him stay." Then, according to Alcibiades (according to Plato), “he lay down on the bed next to mine, on which he reclined during dinner, and no one except us slept in this room...” (Plato, “Symposium”, 127e). Under the cover of darkness, Alcibiades crept up to Socrates and “embraced him with both hands.” However, Socrates still did not feel the desire, and in the end they slept together all night in each other's arms, “as if (he) were sleeping with a father or an older brother” (Plato, Symposium, 219d). In accordance with the mores of that century, Socrates' ability to cope with the pressure of such a handsome youth as Alcibiades was considered almost superhuman restraint.

Sokrativ was an ascetic - this is evidenced both by his appearance and by the historical evidence of other people. Moreover, his life can hardly be called easy. He was constantly heartbroken and beating himself up because he refused to work. With enviable tenacity, he devoted all his time to the work given to him by God - he explained to the Athenian citizens the full depth of their ignorance. But he appears to have received a tiny inheritance from his father, and he was well looked after by his influential friends, who fed him often. Socrates probably knew how to perfectly entertain others during lavish feasts. Constantly reasoning, he willingly stayed up at a party until dawn, and he could outdrink anyone. These gatherings with lavish treats were usually stag parties, but there were no same-sex pranks. Sometimes hetaera (courtesans) were brought in, and Socrates seemed to find delight in this, receiving his share of anything, as long as it was free, in addition to snacks and drinks.

According to Diogenes Laertius, Socrates devoted part of his time to having casual conversations during classes with groups of young students. All this took place in the shop of a certain Simon the shoemaker, at the boundary stone of the Agora.

At the edge of the Agora there is still a Khoros with the inscription “I am the boundary stone of the Agora.” The stone stands next to the wall of a small ancient dwelling. During recent excavations, many scattered shoe nails and a 5th century bowl were unearthed near this wall. BC e. with the name "Simon" written on it. Thus, the very shop in which Socrates taught was miraculously discovered.

Several years ago, when I was in Athens, I visited this place and measured it. It turned out that the base was a square. Just about four by four steps. One can imagine how crowded it was inside: Simon was pounding with a hammer, then a random visitor came in or out, bringing some witty remark on his head. Teaching under such circumstances probably required ingenuity and the ability to command an audience - two qualities that philosophers seem to have lost considerably since then. Socrates was a most talented actor. And no matter what they say about him, he always managed to put on a “show.” It can be said that Socrates remains to this day a great kind of comedian from philosophy.

What exactly did Socrates teach in these classes? One of his most frequently quoted statements is: “And life without (such) research is not life for a person” (Plato, “Apology of Socrates”, 38a). This is, to a large extent, the attitude of a person who lives by mental labor and has a good sense of time. The Greek city-states were probably the first to... creatures that produced something similar to t an intellectual middle class with (thanks to democracy) some degree of independence and the opportunity (thanks to slavery) to have leisure. The Greeks had enough time to follow the flight of their own thoughts wherever they pleased and come to their own conclusions. Original thought of any order requires idleness; this fact remains beyond the sight of those conscientious, but often mediocre people who are forced to earn their living.

Socrates believed that a person's true self is his soul (psyche). Before him, philosophers at one time argued that the soul is the eternal “breath of life” in us, which “sleeps while the body acts, but is awake when the body sleeps” - something like an immortal subconscious, not much different from the fact that what Jung writes in his teaching. Socrates viewed the soul as conscious personality: as a certain entity that can be smart or stupid, good or bad - that is, as something that we stand for. moral in response. He believed that we should strive to make our soul as good as possible, so that it could become like God.

But why? Socrates argued that all people strive for happiness. Whether they achieve this or not - it all depends on the state of their soul. Only good souls achieve a state of happiness. The reason why people do bad things is because the things they are attracted to only seem good, but in reality they are not good at all. If people only knew what was good, they would always behave as it should. And then there would be no conflicts either within ourselves or in society. Probably only a philosopher could so innocently believe in this. It is easy to argue that we all have some vague, unexplored concept of goodness. After all, as soon as we think about it, reducing it to the particulars of the real world, we find that we begin to disagree in opinions - both in a personal sense and in a social sense. Is it good to spend time thinking about philosophy? Is it good to deny women the right to vote?

The Greeks lived in small city-states, and this led to a search for agreement. Athens, the most powerful of all Greek city-states, had at that time 42 thousand free adult men. In addition, the Greeks strongly believed in moderation. (At the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, where the Pythia prophesied, another famous saying was carved in stone: “Nothing beyond measure.”) Socrates’ idea of ​​the good can, in all likelihood, be regarded as the result of a combination of his personal circumstances, as well as the influence of his era . The entire population of Athens at that time - including women, children, foreigners and slaves - was apparently about 250 thousand people. But whether the majority of the population of Athens, deprived of rights, believed that the cause of all their misfortunes was the poor state of their souls is another question.

At the age of 50, Socrates married Xanthippe. There are known stories from the past from supporters of male chauvinism about the militant and cocky Xanthippe, but we must not forget that life with Socrates was not all smooth sailing. Imagine surviving with a man who spends his days walking the streets and having philosophical debates without any desire to earn a penny. After drinking with his friends, he appears when God has his way (and again without money), and he, like all other philosophers, is ridiculed by his neighbors. (Almost a quarter of modern Athenian jokes from the vast collection of anecdotes and ancient jokes that have survived to our time depict the philosopher as a worthless, fallen person.)

It is believed that Xanthippe was the only one who could control the dispute with Socrates. However, as often happens in such “turbulent” relationships, there is evidence from one person that Socrates and Xanthippe were very close. She had 3 sons from him, but none of them, it seems, learned anything outstanding from their father. (All unanimously claim that the sons of Socrates lived completely ordinary lives.) Xanthippe, despite her constant dissatisfaction with her husband’s behavior, seemed to understand perfectly well what an extraordinary person her husband was. She did not hesitate to remain close to Socrates when need was on his heels, and suffered deeply after his death.

When Socrates was 65 years old, the Peloponnesian War finally ended in shame and humiliation for Athens. Lysander, the victorious leader of Sparta, sailed to Piraeus to oversee the establishment of a government loyal to Sparta. Thus a government of thirty tyrants reigned in Athens. An era of intimidation began: arrests took place everywhere, unfair trials took place, and the property of political opponents was confiscated. Many of those who shared the ideas of democracy fled from Athens, but Socrates remained. However, despite his individualism, Socrates was not a democrat. Democracy as a form of government was still in its infancy in those days and often deviated from the principles to which we are accustomed today. In Athens, even military leaders were elected by popular vote - and this method turned out to be less effective than our current principle of nominating commanders from the ranks of career officers. The democrats were often blamed for their unsuccessful military actions, which brought Athens to its knees. However, Socrates had philosophical reasons for criticizing democracy that are consistent with his ethical theory. He argued that most people feel unhappy without knowing anything about true good. As a result, people have to choose rulers who have the same wrong idea of ​​​​the good. This is precisely the reason why Socrates stayed, putting himself in danger. After all, he sincerely believed that there is only one true good and it can only be discovered by armed with his own method. When Plato began to develop these ideas in his utopian work "The Republic", the version of the ideal society that he proposed ultimately turned out to be a real totalitarian nightmare. Following Plato (and Socrates), both communist and Nazi ideologies were convinced that there is only one true good, which can only be comprehended through their philosophical worldview.

One of the leaders of the reign of the Thirty Tyrants was Critias, a former student of Socrates. However, he soon realized that the ideas of education and upbringing that he shared in his youth no longer attracted him. It’s not that he forgot Socrates, not at all. Banning conversations about philosophy on the streets of Athens, Critias specifically mentioned Socrates. Critias, like no one else, knew well how his old teacher knew how to play with words, extracting new meanings from them, and Critias was against this. The activity that Socrates carried out, regardless of whether he called it philosophizing or not, was strictly prohibited by him.

Some were inclined to believe that Socrates decided to stay in Athens as a sign of approval of the government of the tyrants. However, later, when the civil war broke out, Socrates made it clear that he did not want to get involved in politics - he stubbornly sought to follow his principles.

However, in Athens V b. BC e. it was almost impossible to avoid participating in political life(unless you happen to be born a woman or a slave). The tyrants were well aware of the gulf that separated them from the Athenian people, and tried to involve as many people as possible in their policy of terror in order to make others accomplices. Being a principled and consistent person, Socrates, apparently, could not have avoided this fate. It is known that once he and four other people were summoned to the tyrants and ordered to carry out a certain task. Socrates was to go to the island of Salamis and arrest Leontes, the leader of the democratic opposition. This was illegal, and Leontes would almost certainly have been killed as soon as he was brought to Athens. Despite the possible consequences of his action, Socrates simply ignored the illegal orders and went home. If not for a number of unforeseen circumstances, Socrates’ AWOL could well have cost him his life; but Critias was killed, and the government of thirty tyrants was soon overthrown.

The tyrants were replaced by democrats, who, in turn, had a grudge against Socrates. However, in order to heal the wounds civil war, a general amnesty was declared, and Socrates survived. Or so it seemed. In 399 BC. e. Socrates was arrested on charges of immorality and corruption of youth. Behind these accusations was a leading democrat named Anytus, who had long been jealous of Socrates. A few years before these events, the son Anytus became a student of Socrates, and soon his teacher convinced him that it was better for him to lead the “life of a philosopher” than to engage in the family craft in the tannery. The charges against Socrates were ridiculously unfounded, yet they could have resulted in the death penalty. This would be too harsh a punishment. Socrates, of course, was not very popular, like any thinker who defends his strange views and adheres to principles. But what does the death penalty have to do with it? Execute a seventy-year-old man? These accusations and subsequent events to this day are still shrouded in an aura of mystery, and it seems that this mystery will never be solved. Although I fully admit that this is unknown only to us. For, most likely, everyone in Athens knew what the matter was.

Socrates was tried by a court of five hundred members of the ruling council, each of whom was randomly chosen from among the free Athenian citizens. The case against Socrates was introduced by Meletus, who was essentially the six in the game of Anytus. Meletus was a young tragic poet, and not very successful at that: long hair, thin beard, beak nose. His speech was caustic and sarcastic. In a word, a worthy opponent for the cunning old Socrates.

Meletus demanded a conviction and the death penalty for Socrates. The defense of the accused was now in his own hands. However, Socrates underestimated the seriousness of his situation and addressed the court as if the court was taking part in one of Socrates' classes in the art of conversation.

Some of the council members were amused by this, but few. As a result, the votes were distributed as follows: 280 votes for the death penalty and 220 against.

Now Socrates had to put forward a counterproposal to mitigate the sentence. He still refused to take this trial seriously. The charges against him were ridiculous, and he knew it. Socrates suggested that instead of punishment, they honor him for everything he had done for the city. Instead of a death sentence, Socrates, in his opinion, should have been given a place in the Prytaneum - a sacred hall in which honorary citizens and winners of sports competitions were served a free meal at public expense.

There was a buzz in the court.

Considering that all this went beyond the boundaries of common sense, Socrates proposed replacing the sentence with a fine - in accordance with his material capabilities, and proposed a ridiculous amount of one mina (this money would be enough for a jug of wine).

At this point even the council could no longer stand it. This time they voted for the death penalty again: 360 votes to 140.

Here we see a clear manifestation of Socrates' stubbornness towards the court. Did he really think that the court would “reward him what he deserves” and let him go in peace? Or did Socrates decide to die? (If he had proposed exile as a sentence for himself, the court, of course, would have agreed to it. In this case, Socrates would certainly have been supported by his friends, surrounding him with care.) Then one would think that Socrates “decided - even if subconsciously - doom yourself to martyrdom.

Then Socrates would have been taken away from the court, immediately condemned. However, on the eve of the trial, the sacred ship sailed on its annual journey to the island of Delos - more than 100 miles across the Aegean Sea. No executions were allowed until his return. So Socrates was handcuffed and taken to the state prison.

The building of this prison can still be seen 100 yards southwest of the ruins of the Agora, on a rocky wasteland with the remains of old foundations. The room and bath where Socrates was imprisoned are located nearby, to the right of the entrance. It was here that he received friends in the last days of his life. It was in this room (six by six steps) that the events described by Plato in his most intelligent dialogues took place - masterpieces of ancient Greek literature, worthy of comparison with the works of Homer and tragedies.

The hero of these dialogues remains himself to the end, humane, wise, and cannot help but admire, and it is clear that he does this consciously. At the very beginning, Socrates' friend Crito informs him that he has already prepared everything for the escape, bribing the guards, who will pretend that they did not notice the escape. However, Socrates rejected this proposal. He understood that if he agreed, it would contradict his entire teaching. Socrates' faith in the power of law was unshakable, even if the law was wrong.

Finally news comes that the sacred ship will soon return to Athens. Socrates' friends and his wife Xanthippe gather in their prison cell. Socrates sends Xanthippe away to avoid unnecessary emotions in front of strangers. Leaving, Xanthippe exclaims: “You are innocent!” In his characteristic manner, Socrates gives the answer: “Would you like me to be guilty?”

Socrates is having a conversation with friends (students would be more helpful here) about the nature of death and immortality.

He describes all this with deep emotion. Plato, although he himself was not present (just that day Plato could not get out of bed due to a fever). Then Socrates is handed a bowl of hemlock. (In Athens, the execution of the death penalty was carried out according to the “do it yourself!” principle.) True to himself to the end, Socrates asks: “What should I do?” (Plato, Phaedo, 117c). “Nothing,” he replies, “just drink and walk until you feel heaviness in your legs, and then lie down.” It will act on its own...” (Plato, Phaedo, 117c). - “How do you think this drink can be used to make a libation for one of the gods (or not)? (Plato, Phaedo, 117c). - “We wash away (poison) exactly enough, Socrates, to drink...” Socrates “raised the cup to his lips and drank to the bottom - calmly and easily.”

His friends “could no longer hold back their tears”... and “the tears flowed in a stream.”

Socrates admonishes them: “Well, what are you, what are you, eccentrics! Quiet, restrain yourself... Wasn’t that mainly why I sent Xanthippe away from here, to avoid such unrest?” (117e).

Socrates “lay down on his back” and “little by little, moving his hand up, showed us how the body grew cold and numb” (118).

“Crito, we owe Asclepius a rooster. (So ​​give it back, don’t forget!)” (118) - were his last words.

Then the “Athenian gadfly” passed away into another world.

* * *

In Plato's account, Socrates' last words sound quite authentic. But these words are not the least important, because it is not entirely clear what they mean. We can be quite sure that truth triumphed over literature (even if Plato did have to rely on rumors that his friends told him).

It is clear that Socrates' last words have received numerous interpretations. Most likely, Socrates simply took the chicken from a friend named Asclepius and wanted to repay the debt. However, for many researchers this seems to be too ordinary an interpretation. Asclepius, in addition to a fairly common name, is also the god of healing and healing. (He was usually depicted walking with a staff around which a snake was coiled: this is the source of the sign of medicine wise as a snake, which still adorns pharmacies and emergency rooms.) There are people who suggest that Socrates' last words mean that he he simply asked that his doctor be paid. But there is a more sophisticated metaphysical explanation. What else could Socrates' last words mean? “Crito, we must sacrifice a rooster to Asclepius. Keep track and don’t forget.” It was believed that Asclepius could heal the soul from the ailments of this world when it was preparing to move on to another world.

Therefore, Socrates' desire to sacrifice a chicken was quite possibly associated with the hope of a safe passage of his soul to better world. This may well be perceived in line with his belief in the immortality of the soul. So, Socrates explained to the assembled friends before he drank the cup of hemlock: “Those who, due to the gravity of their crimes, are considered incorrigible (...) villains, their appropriate fate will cast them into Tartarus (Plato, Phaedo, PZe, 114a, c) ... For good deeds they receive rewards - each according to their deserts ... Those about whom it is decided that they have lived especially holy: they are freed and delivered from imprisonment in the bowels of the earth, and they come to the country of the highest purity, located above that Earth (and settle there). Those among them who, thanks to philosophy, have been completely purified... arrive in even more beautiful abodes” (Plato, “Phaedo”, 114c, c).

Socrates was only a man (and only a philosopher) to admit to some uncertainty on this issue. Before drinking hemlock, he told his friends this: “But now it’s time to leave here, for me to die, for you to live, and which of us is going for the best is not clear to anyone except God” (Plato , "Apology of Socrates").

When Socrates died, the Athenians realized the injustice of the verdict they had accepted. Days of mourning for Socrates were declared in Athens. Gyms, theaters and schools were closed, Meletus was sentenced to death, and Anytus was exiled. Later, a bronze statue of Socrates made by Lysippos was placed on the Sacred Way. This was, of course, chiefly for the benefit of the unemployed, that they might gather at the feet of the noblest of their champions.

All this looks very decent and honorable and characterizes the Athenian citizens quite positively. However, it seems to me that Socrates simply became a hostage to some deeper political plan. But in general we can say that Socrates won this game, and without even lifting a finger to do so, otherwise we would not be reading about him now.

Ancient Greek philosopher, one of the founders of dialectics as a method

finding the truth by asking leading questions - the so-called

Socratic method Was accused of "worship of new deities" and "corruption

youth" and sentenced to death. He presented his teachings orally. The purpose of philosophy is

self-knowledge as a path to comprehension of true good, virtue is knowledge, or

wisdom For subsequent eras, Socrates became the embodiment of the ideal of the sage

Socrates was of the simplest origin. He was born around 469 BC. Father

his is the stonemason Sofronisk from the deme of Alopeka, and Fenaret’s mother is the midwife

Information about Socrates is extremely contradictory. He himself never wrote anything, but

only talked, was a very popular person and had a huge influence on people

In any case, Socrates is a regular on the streets, markets and friendly gatherings,

small in stature, high cheekbones, with an upturned nose, thick lips and knobby

His forehead, bald, resembled a comic theatrical mask. He was always barefoot,

walked in an old tunic. This outfit was so common for Socrates that he

the enthusiastic listener Aristodemus, seeing him one day in sandals, was very

surprised It turned out that Socrates “dressed up” for a feast with the poet Agathon on the occasion of his

victories in the Athens theater

His mysterious way of talking confidentially, intimately, friendly and together with

thus ironically embarrassed the interlocutor, who suddenly realized himself

insignificant, stupid, confused Socrates' questions about what beauty is,

justice, friendship, wisdom, courage, made people think not

Socrates explained only about philosophical concepts, but also about life values

a person's purpose in society, his responsibilities, his relationship with

laws, the need to honor the gods, education, abstinence from rude

passions - that is, practical orientation in life for a person,

guided by conscience, justice and civic duty.

The sage, judging by the information received from his students, appears in

extremely contradictory form. Criticism of power coexists in the views of Socrates

majority (democracy) and respect for laws, unquestioning implementation

civic duty. His irony and doubt are next to his deep faith in goodness.

the basis of man. The desire for an ideal existence does not in the least hinder him in earthly life.

friendship and cheerful feast conversations Faith in the inner voice, “daimon”,

conscience, which turns away from unworthy actions, coexists with faith in the afterlife

life. The consciousness of one’s insignificance is inseparable from a firm conviction in one’s own

destiny to a high goal, because the Delphic oracle called Socrates the wisest

from the Greeks

Main sources about Socrates - memories of Xenophon and dialogues of Plato.

The books of his faithful friends reveal to us the Socrates who became a living legend.

Xenophon created his ideal of Socrates - a moralist, persistent, stubborn, but

a somewhat annoying talker who embarrassed everyone with his impeccable

logic. Platonov's Socrates is a lively, perky, lover of table conversations,

a figure both tragic and funny, a rare combination of ascetic

sage and mocker

In his youth, Socrates worked together with his father, and he was even considered quite good

sculptor. By the age of twenty-five, he set out to gain sophistical

wisdom to Prodicus of Kos, his peer, a sophist who gave

great importance to moral principles, studied the philosophy of language, studying

variety of semantic meanings of the word It is possible that the passion for eloquence

led young Socrates to meet Aspasia, the wife of Pericles,

renowned beauty and love of philosophy. Many years later, Socrates recalled

how he studied rhetoric from Aspasia and, for his forgetfulness, almost received from her

slaps. He even remembered and retold the speech that Aspasia composed for

Pericles at the burial of the dead Athenian soldiers. The passion for rhetoric was combined with

music lessons, which Socrates was taught by Damon, the mentor of Pericles, and Connon A

music in turn led to mathematics and astronomy. Socrates took lessons from

Theodora of Cyrene, learned geometer, astronomer and musician Method of conversation,

based on questions and answers, the so-called dialectic, confronted Socrates with

amazing woman, Diotima, priestess and prophetess, who, according to legend, even

delayed the plague's invasion of Athens for ten years. This most educated woman

amazed Socrates with her flexibility of mind and subtle logic.

There is a legend that in early youth, almost twenty years old

young man, Socrates met the philosopher Parmenides, the famous founder

They say that Socrates listened to Archelaus, a student of the famous Anaxagoras.

His passion for philosophy and problems of the meaning of life did not hinder Socrates

strictly fulfill your duty to your homeland. During the Peloponnesian War he

participated in the siege of Potidaea (432-429 BC), in the battles of Delia (424

year BC BC) and Amphipolis (422 BC), where he behaved with dignity and courage.

Socrates was so immersed in thought and contemplation of ideas that, as he writes,

Plato, in the camp near Potidaea, once stood motionless in one place, all

day and all night until dawn to the surprise of people. In the battle of Potidaea he seemed

would have saved Alcibiades' life. When the army retreated, he with great self-control

fought his way together with the military leader Laches, famous for his bravery, so

even from a distance it was clear that this man would stand up for himself.

But then one day an incident occurred that changed the hitherto measured course of life.

philosopher

Chaerephon, one of the closest and most ardent friends of Socrates, went to the sacred

the city of Delphi to the oracle of Apollo and asked God if there was anyone in the world

wiser than Socrates. Legends interpret the Pythia's answer in different ways. Or the Pythia said that

no one is wiser than Socrates, or did she say “Sophocles is wise, Euripides is wiser,

Socrates is the wisest of all men."

Such recognition of the exceptional wisdom of a man who said about himself: “I

I know that I know nothing,” had a profound effect on him. Socrates became as if

obsessed with the idea of ​​teaching his fellow citizens true knowledge, because he believed that there was

"There is only one good - knowledge, and only one evil - ignorance."

So, already at the age of forty, Socrates felt the calling of a teacher.

truth. But he did not travel outside of Athens, except for a trip with Archelaus to

the island of Samos or to the sacred Delphi and the Isthmian Isthmus.

The fame of Socrates surpassed the popularity of the Sophists. They taught the art of argument for the sake of

the dispute itself, regardless of the truth

Socrates, too, was always among curious admirers, friends and students. But he

He taught unselfishly, himself setting an example of modesty in everyday life. In conversation he

hid his knowledge of the subject deeper and outwardly seemed equal to some

an inexperienced interlocutor, together with whom he embarked on a search for the truth. Socrates didn't

was a debater, like the sophists - he was a dialectician, a master of figuring out the essence

the subject through questions and answers in casual conversation. Collision

thoughts, discarding false paths, gradually approaching correct knowledge

Socrates jokingly called the art of midwifery, the spiritual birth of an idea, recalling

probably his mother's craft.

Those who sincerely tried to get to the bottom of the truth came to Socrates, but they also came

curious, attracted by his fame. Among them were both old and young Socrates

was friends with the Pythagorean philosophers, his peers Simmi-

he and Cebes The most reliable friend was Crito, not a philosopher, but simply kind and

noble man. He had friends in different parts of Greece, in Thessaly,

Thebes, Megara, Elide Euclid from Megara made his way to Athens at night during the war

on pain of death to listen to Socrates Phaedon of Elis, who was captured and

enslaved, was ransomed with the assistance of Socrates and became his student.

Others, like Chaerephon, Apollodorus, Antisthenes, Aristodemus or Hermogenes, were

enthusiastic fans of Socrates, ready to give up all the blessings of life for his sake

Xenophon, writer, philosopher, historian, met the original Socrates

Socrates once allegedly met Xenophon and blocked his path with a stick,

asking him where food is sold. To Xenophon’s answer, he again asked the question: where

people become virtuous9 In response to Xenophon's silence, Socrates powerfully ordered"

“Come with me and study” That’s why, when Xenophon had to go to Asia Minor

military commander to the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger, he consulted with no one

other than Socrates, who sent him to Delphi to the oracle of Apollo

Arrogant aristocrats like Alcibiades, Critias or

Callicles, and the Macedonian king Archelaus invited Socrates to his court, to which

received a refusal. Socrates also rejected the invitation of Scopas and Eurylochus, the rulers of

Thessaly and Larissa

Socrates was a sociable person. He spent his days either in the gymnasium or in the palaestra,

sometimes in the agora or at the banquet table, and everywhere he talked, taught, gave

advice, listened. Sometimes some newcomer appeared in the city

celebrity, and Socrates was in a hurry to meet and argue. So, in 432 BC

n. e. Protagoras, the most inflexible of the sophists, came to Athens for the second time, books

who will then be burned in Athens, and he himself, accused of freethinking, will be

forced to flee to Sicily and die in a storm. Plato will tell in one of

of his dialogues (“Protagoras”), as in the house of the rich man Callias, where Protagoras stayed,

The most famous Athenians and famous sophists gathered. Here Socrates bravely and

ironically argued with Protagoras, surrounded by hostile sophists and

inquisitive youth: there were Alcibiades, Critias, the sons of Pericles, Agathon More

a year remained until the Peloponnesian War, at the very beginning of which Pe-

Rickle and both his sons

Socrates, according to legend, lived so ascetically and modestly that during the plague epidemic of 429

BC, when thousands of people died out or left the city, it was not exposed to infection.

Socrates had no luck with women, although he was married twice. Xanthippe's name became

a common noun to denote a grumpy, always dissatisfied wife. U

Socrates and Xanthippe had three sons - the eldest Lamprock and two younger ones - Sophronix and

Menexenus Once Xanthippe first scolded Socrates, and then threw water on him, “So I

and said,” he said, “at Xanthippe there is first thunder, and then rain.” Alcibiades

told him that Xanthippe’s abuse was unbearable. Socrates replied, “But I’m used to her,

like the eternal creaking of a wheel, you can endure the cackling of a goose9" - "But from the geese I

I get eggs and chicks for the table," said Alcibiades. "And Xanthippe gives birth to me

children," replied Socrates

Little information has been preserved about Myrta, the second heroine of Socrates’ family novel.

Socrates summarized his knowledge in the family field in winged wisdom. "Are you getting married?

or you don’t get married, you’ll still repent.”

Weakened by the failures of the Peloponnesian War (411 BC), democracy lost

their positions Abuse of power by leaders of individual parties, demagogues,

caused great discontent among the people

Peaceful studies of philosophy could not continue away from political life

Socrates became involved in a tragic story that happened to the Athenians

strategists in 406 BC. e, after the battle of the Arginuz Islands

The Athenian fleet, led by ten strategists, won a brilliant victory over

Peloponnesians. However, the Athenians did not have time to bury their

dead soldiers. Fearing punishment, only six strategists returned to their homeland,

the rest fled. Those who returned were first awarded for the victory, and then their

accused of violating domestic religious customs. The authorities were in such a hurry

deal with the strategists, wanting to intimidate the citizens who demanded to solve them

each individually, Socrates just in 406 BC. was elected member

the Athenian Council of Five Hundred, of which every citizen who had reached

At the age of thirty, Socrates entered the Council from his native deme Alopeka on the very day

of the court he appeared as an epistatist, that is, the head of the entire Council for that day

Socrates sharply opposed the illegal hasty trial without any

proceedings. Xenophon, a contemporary of the events, in his "Greek History" and

the late historian Diodorus talks in detail about this painful matter in order to circumvent

Socrates' stubbornness, they decided to postpone the court's decision until the next day, when

The council was headed by another epistat. The strategists were found guilty and executed

Socrates himself barely escaped persecution by the ruling party.

The act of Socrates did not go unnoticed by Plato in one of his first

works - "Apologies of Socrates" - told about this story, putting it into his mouth

Socrates himself

In 404 BC. e. Critias, once a listener of Socrates, who went over to

sophists, himself a brilliant sophist and witty poet, headed the state

coup. The Athenian oligarchy, which carried out a coup, received the name of power

Thirty Tyrants These Thirty - the top of the conspirators - ruled Athens with few

for more than a year, dealing with the disobedient - expulsions and executions.

Socrates again found himself as the prytan of the Athenian Council and, at the request of the Thirty,

including five fellow citizens performing the same duties, was supposed to bring with

island of Salamis famous Leontes, in order to execute him Leontes was very rich, and

oligarchs sought to take possession of his property. However, Socrates opposed this

order, and again alone, while the other four brought Leontes to

death Again Socrates narrowly escaped execution

Fortunately, the power of the Thirty was short-lived and collapsed in 403 BC

Socrates' truth-seeking was already annoying strong people, and they were thinking how

to get rid of the annoying philosopher

After the fall of the oligarchs, apparently in 402 BC, as Plato says

(“Meno”), Socrates had to meet with another “strong personality” -

Thessalian Menon from the family of the ruling Alevads, who would later become involved

into the political struggle of the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger and died in Persia

painful death

In 399 BC, a denunciation was filed against Socrates, compiled by an unknown poet

Meletus, the rich tanner Anytus and the orator Lycon Formally the first

Meletus was the accuser, but essentially the main role belonged to an influential

Anita, who saw Socrates as a sophist, a dangerous critic of ancient ideals

state, religious and family life The indictment stated the following:

“This accusation was written and sworn by Meletus, the son of Meletus, a Pythean,

against Socrates, son of Sophronis from the deme of Alopeka Socrates is accused of

does not recognize the gods that the city recognizes, and introduces other, new gods

He is also accused of corrupting youth. The required punishment is death."

As Plato relates (Theaetetus), Socrates had a peaceful conversation with the geometer Theodore

Cyrene and the young Theaetetus, the future famous scientist and philosopher, man

noble and courageous At the end of the conversation we talk about the “midwifery art”

Socrates, which he and his mother received from God. She is for women giving birth.

children, Socrates - for young men who give birth to beautiful thoughts Socrates as if unexpectedly

remembers that he has to go to court, where he is summoned on charges,

signed by Meletus

However, even a summons to court did not prevent Socrates, judging by Plato’s dialogue “The Sophist”,

the next day meet with your interlocutors and, with the help of your

"midwifery art" to find out what a real sophist is

The general conclusion was that this is a sophistic dispute - it is empty chatter, promoting

waste of time and money The art of the sophist is nothing more than an argument for the sake of profit

The case of Socrates took a bad turn. The trial took place in one

from 10 divisions of the jury, or heliia, which included 5 thousand citizens and a thousand

reserves, who were elected annually by lot from each of the 10 phyla of Attica B

department that examined the case of Socrates, there were 500 people. To this number

became odd

Socrates had to appear in court and speak in his own defense. He suggested

help and even prepared a speech for him by the famous judicial orator Lysias, however

the sage refused the speech prepared by Lysias Socrates, who was accustomed to talking with

people of different status, income and education, I decided to convince myself of my

innocence court, where any Athenian citizen over twenty could sit

years, and where jury duty was performed by potters, gunsmiths, tailors,

cooks, shipwrights, coppersmiths, healers, carpenters, tanners, small traders and

merchants, teachers, musicians, scribes, teachers in gymnasiums and palaestras and many

many others with whom Socrates entered into conversations in the squares and bazaars

After the accusers had made their speeches, Socrates was given the floor

However, the time of the defensive speech was strictly limited, in a visible place

installed a clepsydra (water clock) Plato later wrote with pain that

Socrates had so much to say and justify himself before the accusations

twenty years ago, launched with the light hand of Aristophanes, and before

current accusers Not a single specific, substantiated accusation

existed Socrates had to, as he himself said, fight with shadows and

rumors He manages to ask his usual ironic questions during his speech

Meletus, and he answers inappropriately or is silent Socrates, who is so used to convincing

people that the meaning of life is not in the accumulation of money, but in virtue, holds

dignified and does not seek leniency, does not hope to pity the jury with his

poverty, old age, three children who will remain orphans He is confident in his

rightness, declaring that he will not stop further educating citizens. As a witness, he

takes his friends, who listen to him in awe. Here is the old man Crito and his son

Critobulus, Aeschines of Sfetta and his father, Antiphon and Nicostratus Here Allodorus with

his brother and sons Ariston, Adeimantus and Plato Socrates does not ask for trial

compromise the truth and break the oath He seeks only one justice

The jury, after deliberating the case, returns a guilty verdict. According to evidence

Plato, 221 votes were cast for the acquittal of Socrates, and 280 votes were cast against him

for Socrates death But according to Athenian laws, the accused had the right in turn

offer yourself punishment And Socrates, with his characteristic irony, suggests for

himself, as for an old man, who devoted a lot of energy to the education of Athenian citizens,

lifelong dinner at the public expense in the prytaneum, which was intended

athletes who have earned awards at Olympic Games He is willing to pay a fine of 1

mine, but all his property is valued at 5 min. But friends Crito, Critobulus,

Apollodorus and Plato, who are present here, order him to impose a fine of 30

min to appease the jury, and take a guarantee They are people

wealthy and reliable, so the money will be deposited on time

The court was not content with the fine, and the jury, offended by Socrates' irony,

imposing a death sentence "It is especially hard for me, Socrates, that you are sentenced to

the death penalty is unfair" To which Socrates replied "And it would be more pleasant for you

see that I am sentenced fairly9"

Socrates was calm. He said that nature doomed him from birth, just like

all people to death. And death is a good thing, for it gives him the opportunity or

become nothing and feel nothing, or if you believe in an afterlife,

meet the glorious sages and heroes of the past. The most important thing is that he is ready

and in Hades to test its inhabitants, who of them is wise, and who is just pretending

Socrates, respecting the decision of the Athenians, instructed the wise

them their sons, so that they could be guided along the path of virtue, just as he himself

guided his compatriots. “It’s time to leave here,” he finished, “I _

To die, you need to live, and which of these is better, no one knows except

To those who condemned him, Socrates predicted the coming of new accusers who would

the younger they are, the more painful it is to reprove. And their denunciation of injustice

will surpass everything that Socrates has done so far.

According to legend, Socrates' accusers experienced his prediction. They say

that the Athenians, having come to their senses, expelled them from the city, deprived them of “fire and water,” so that

they had no choice but to hang themselves. Descendants really wanted retribution

ever overtook the murderers of Socrates. Thus arose the legend of how Anytus,

the main instigator and persecutor, was stoned and died in terrible

torment.

By decision of the court, Socrates was taken to prison. The verdict could not be carried out

execution for another whole month So Socrates lived in prison for many more days, waiting

imminent death, friends came to him. Old man Crito urged him to save himself.

escape and find refuge far from Athens, at least in Thessaly, where he was already expected.

The famous Pythagorean philosophers from Thebes, Simmias and Cebes were ready to help their

help a friend and pay whoever needs it. Devotees visited Socrates every day

students. But rumors reached that the execution would take place the next day, and Crito

He hurried Socrates with a decision, since everything was already prepared for escape.

Socrates, however, remained adamant. He wanted to meet death with dignity and not

resist the evil that his hometown inflicts on him. You can't repay evil for evil,

breaking the laws and customs of antiquity

Death of Socrates. The next morning, the friends gathered for the last meeting with Socrates Eleven

the archons overseeing the prisons were ordered to carry out the execution on the same day.

asked Critias to take the unfortunate woman home. Asam peacefully talked with friends about

the immortality of the soul, about its fate in the afterlife, about how beautiful and shining

he sees the true earth and the true sky. Socrates was convinced that after drinking

hemlock, a poison that will bring him death, he will go to the happy lands of the blessed.

He performed ablutions in the next room, said goodbye to his children and relatives and

ordered them to return home.

A slave came along with a man who was holding a cup of deadly poison in his hands.

Socrates slowly took the cup in his hands and drank it to the bottom. His friends were sobbing around him,

must be in reverent silence. He walked around for a short time, then lay down. And suddenly

said his last words: “Crito, we owe Asclepius a rooster. So give it back

“Well, don’t forget” - “Certainly,” responded Crito, “Would you like anything else?”

say?" But there was no answer. Crito closed his mouth and eyes. Dying, he

would recover, and his soul would return to eternal life, freed from earthly

adversity That is why in his last words Socrates remembered the sacrifice that

brought to the god of healing Asclepius, the giver of health

Socrates is the first philosopher from Athens, a contemporary of Democritus. He is interesting not only as the creator of his own teaching. His whole life is the embodiment of the philosophy that this thinker followed. The ideas of Socrates had a great influence on the development of ancient and modern thought.

Why didn't Socrates write anything?

The philosopher himself, who actively participated in various interviews, did not write anything. In Plato's dialogue Phaedrus, he opposes Teuth (Thoth) of Egypt, who was credited with the invention of writing. In general, Socrates speaks out against this method of recording knowledge, since writing makes it external and interferes with internal deep assimilation. Socrates says that writing is dead. They always say the same thing no matter how much you ask them. The philosopher preferred spoken dialogue to a recorded monologue.

From what sources do we learn about Socrates?

What sources can be used to reconstruct the biography of Socrates and his teaching? Everything we know about him comes from his students - the philosopher Plato and the historian Xenophon. The latter dedicated his works “Memoirs of Socrates” and “Apology of Socrates” to this thinker and his teaching. Plato attributed almost all of his own reasoning to his teacher, so it is difficult to say where are the thoughts of Socrates and where are Plato’s (especially in the early dialogues). Some historians of ancient philosophy, due to the lack of direct information about Socrates, have repeatedly over the past decades made attempts to prove that this philosopher did not exist in reality and was a literary character. However, many ancient authors speak about Socrates. For example, his caricatured image as a sophist is presented in the comedy "Clouds" (author - Aristophanes).

Origin of Socrates

Socrates, whose biography and philosophy interests us, is the first born Athenian philosopher. It comes from the house of Alopek, which was part of the Athenian polis, which was located about half an hour’s walk from the then capital, Attica. Sophroniscus, father of Socrates, artisan stonecutter. His mother is the midwife of Finaret.

Brief biography

The biography of Socrates is marked by the fact that during the war between Sparta and Athens he valiantly performed his military duty. He participated in battles three times, the last time in the Battle of Amphipoda, which took place in 422 BC. e. Then the Spartans defeated the Athenians. This battle ended the first period of the war. In 421 BC. e. The Treaty of Nikia was signed. The philosopher Socrates (his biography can be reconstructed only on the basis of indirect sources) did not participate in the second period of this war, unfortunate for Athens. However, she still touched him with a tragic event. Athenians in 406 BC e. won after a number of defeats long-awaited victory in the naval battle of the Arginus Islands. However, the strategists of Athens were unable to bury the dead due to the storm. The winners were judged in the council of five hundred. As an assessor at it, Socrates opposed the hasty trial that took place over all the strategists at once. However, the council disobeyed this thinker, and all 8 strategists were executed. The biography of Socrates was also affected by the Peloponnesian War, in which Athens was defeated, and the subsequent tyranny of the thirty. Once again a prytan (an assessor on the council), the thinker once refused to participate in the massacre of an honest citizen of Athens carried out by tyrants. So this philosopher fulfilled the public duties that were assigned to all free Athenians under the conditions of ancient democracy.

However, the thinker to the active social activities didn't try. He preferred the life of a philosopher. Socrates' biography shows that he lived an unpretentious life. He was a bad family man; he did not care about his wife and 3 sons, who were born to him late. Socrates' entire life was devoted to numerous philosophical debates and conversations. He had many students. The thinker Socrates, unlike the Sophists, did not take money for teaching.

Charge and trial of Socrates

This philosopher was accused of godlessness after overthrowing the tyranny of the Thirty and restoring democracy in Athens. From Meletus, the tragic poet, the orator Lycon, and Anytus, the rich tanner, this accusation came. Plato, in his dialogue “Meno,” reports that Anytus, a participant in the overthrow of the Thirty, expelled by tyrants from Athens, did not like the sophists, saying that they were “damage” and “destruction” for the people who hang out with them. Socrates notes with bitterness that Anytus believes that Socrates also destroys people, like the Sophists. The philosopher in the dialogue "Euthyphro" tells the author, whom he met by chance, that Meletus, apparently an insignificant young man, wrote a denunciation against him, in which he accused him of corrupting youth by overthrowing old gods and inventing new ones. Euthyphron calms him down. However, in 399 BC. e., in the spring, the philosopher nevertheless appeared before the jury. Meletus acted as prosecutor. He declared that the philosopher was guilty of "introducing new deities" and corrupting youth. For Meletus to succeed, he had to collect at least a fifth of the votes sitting in Helium. Socrates responded to this with a defensive speech. In it, he denied the charges brought against him. However, he was found guilty by a majority vote. Socrates also said that in the memory of posterity he will forever remain a sage, but his accusers will suffer. In fact, according to Plutarch, they hanged themselves. The speeches Socrates delivered at his trial are contained in Plato's work entitled Apology of Socrates.

Socrates accepts his fate

The sage was supposed to be executed immediately, but on the eve of the trial a ship with a religious mission left Athens for the island of Delos, and executions, according to custom, were prohibited until his return. Socrates had to spend 30 days in prison while awaiting execution of his sentence. One morning his friend Crito made his way to him by bribing the jailer. He said that a philosopher can run. However, Socrates refused, believing that one should obey established laws, even if he was unfairly convicted. This can be learned from the dialogue "Crito", written by Plato. In Phaedo, Plato talks about last day the life of his teacher, which Socrates spent with his students.

He told them that he was not afraid of death, since he was prepared for it by his philosophy and his entire way of life. After all, according to his conviction, philosophizing represents dying for this life and preparing for the life of an immortal soul outside the body. His wife, Xanthippe, came in the evening, and Socrates' relatives and his three sons also appeared. The philosopher said goodbye to them. Then he drank the cup of poison in the presence of his disciples. Socrates, according to Plato, died quietly. The philosopher's last words were a request to sacrifice a rooster to Asclepius. Such a sacrifice was usually made by those who had recovered. By this, the philosopher wanted to emphasize that the death of the body is the recovery of the soul.

Subject of philosophy (according to Socrates)

The focus of this thinker, like some sophists, is man. However, Socrates views him only as a moral being. The philosophy of this thinker is thus an ethical anthropologism. Physics and mythology were alien to the interests of Socrates. He believed that the work of mythology interpreters was ineffective. At the same time, Socrates was also not interested in nature. It can be argued, if we draw an analogy with the Chinese sages contemporary to him, that this philosopher is closer to the Confucians than to the Taoists. Socrates repeated that trees and terrain teach him nothing, unlike people in the city. This thinker, however, ironically had to pay for the physics of Anaxagoras, since in Athens, because of his views, a law was passed, according to which, those who do not honor the gods according to established custom or explain celestial phenomena scientifically, were declared state criminals. The philosopher was accused of allegedly teaching that the Moon is the earth and the Sun is a stone. The problem with Socrates was that, although he said that Anaxagoras taught this, and not he, the thinker was not believed.

The essence of Socrates' philosophy

The essence of Socrates' philosophy is defined by two mottos: “I know that I know nothing” and “Know thyself.” For this thinker, self-knowledge had a certain meaning, that is, to know oneself meant to know oneself precisely as a moral and social being, not only as an individual, but first of all as a person in general. Ethical issues are the main goal of Socrates' philosophy and its content. Aristotle in Metaphysics will later say about this thinker that he dealt with issues of morality, but did not study nature as a whole.

Philosophical method

The Socratic method can generally be called subjective dialectics. This philosopher, being a lover of self-contemplation, at the same time loved to communicate with people. He was also a master of dialogue. It was not for nothing that Socrates’ accusers were afraid that he would be able to convince the court. The philosopher avoided the use of external techniques. Content, not form, interested him above all. Socrates noted at the trial that he would speak without choosing words. The speeches of this thinker, according to Alcibiades, seem ridiculous at first glance, as if he were talking about the same thing in the same words. However, if you think about them, they turn out to be very meaningful. The Socratic method also pursued the achievement of conceptual knowledge through guidance (induction), ascent to the general from the particular during the interview process.

The essence of knowledge

The teaching of Socrates assumed that to know is first of all to understand what it is. Although Meno speaks eloquently about virtue, he cannot, however, define it. It turns out that he doesn't know what he's talking about. Therefore, the purpose of discussing a particular subject is a concept, a definition. Socrates is the first philosopher who brought knowledge to the level of the concept. If his predecessors used concepts, they did so spontaneously. Only Socrates noted that there is no knowledge without definition.

Judgments about good and evil

Socrates' belief that there is objective truth means that there are some objective moral standards. Moreover, the difference between evil and good is absolute, not relative. The philosopher did not, like some sophists, identify happiness with profit. He identified it with virtue. However, one should do good only if a person knows what it is. Only the man who understands what courage is is courageous. It is this knowledge that makes him so. Understanding good and evil makes people virtuous. No one will do bad, knowing good and evil. The latter is just the result of ignorance of good. The teaching of Socrates defines morality as a consequence of knowledge. The moral theory of this philosopher is purely rationalistic. Aristotle will then object to him that having knowledge of evil and good and using it are not the same thing. Evil people, having such knowledge, ignore it. Intemperate people do this unwittingly. Knowledge must also be applied in practice to specific situations. Ethical virtues are achieved, according to Aristotle, through education; it is just a matter of habit. You need to get used to, for example, being brave.

The task of philosophy (according to Socrates)

Before Socrates, it was believed that the main subject of philosophy was nature, the external world. Socrates said that he is unknowable. You can only know the soul of a person and his deeds, which is the task of philosophy.

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1. Socrates.Bibliography

philosophical Socrates Plato Xenophon

Socrates was born in 469 BC. e. The son of the Athenian stonecutter Sophroniscus and the midwife Fenareta. His first philosophical sayings came during the era of Pericles, i.e. at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. Sometimes the interlocutors reluctantly answered him, and sometimes they entered into polemics with great willingness. Having received an answer to his first question, he asked the next one, then this situation was repeated and so on until the interlocutor began to contradict himself! Driven to despair, his opponent asked Socrates - “but he himself knows the answer to his questions” - no, he answered, that’s why he asked! “I know that I know nothing” is one of the most famous sayings of Socrates. What does it mean? Being very strict with yourself, underestimating yourself, or something else. After many centuries, it is generally accepted that this phrase represents the need for a deeper knowledge of oneself!

Socrates considered his most important calling to be “the education of man,” the meaning of which he saw in discussions and conversations, and not in the systematic presentation of some field of knowledge. He never considered himself “wise” (sophos), but considered himself a philosopher “loving wisdom” (philosophia). The title of sage, in his opinion, befits a god. If a person smugly believes that he knows ready-made answers to everything, then such a person is lost to philosophy, there is no need for him to rack his brains in search of the most correct concepts, there is no need to move further in search of new solutions to this or that problem. As a result, the sage turns out to be a “parrot” who has memorized several phrases and throws them into the crowd.

He believed that the main task of philosophy was the rational justification of the religious and moral worldview, while knowledge of nature and natural philosophy was considered unnecessary and godless. Socrates is the fundamental enemy of the study of nature. He considered the work of the human mind in this direction to be godlessness. He believed that the world is the creation of a great and omnipotent “deity.” Fortune telling is needed, not Scientific research to receive instructions from the gods regarding their will. He followed the instructions of the Delphic oracle and advised his students to do the same. He made sacrifices to the gods and diligently performed all religious rituals.

It turns out that Socrates solves the main question of philosophy as an idealist: nature is something not worth a look philosopher, the most important thing for him is the spirit of consciousness. Doubt served as a prerequisite for Socrates to turn to his own self, to the subjective spirit, for which the further path led to the objective spirit - to the divine mind. The idealistic ethics of Socrates develops into theology. He opposes the determinism of ancient Greek materialists and outlines the foundations of a teleological worldview, and here the starting point for him is the subject, for he believes that everything in the world has as its goal the benefit of man.

Socrates' teleology appears in an extremely primitive form. The human senses, according to this teaching, have as their purpose the accomplishment of certain tasks. Purpose: eyes - to see, ears - to listen, nose - to smell, etc. Likewise, the gods send the light necessary for people to see, the night is intended by the gods for the rest of people, the light of the moon and stars is intended to help determine time. The gods make sure that the earth produces food for humans, for which an appropriate schedule of seasons has been introduced; Moreover, the movement of the sun occurs at such a distance from the earth that people do not suffer from excessive heat or excessive cold, etc.

Socrates did not put his philosophical teaching into written form, but disseminated it through oral conversation. Not limiting himself to a leadership role within his philosophical and political circle. Walking around Athens in squares, in public meeting places, on the streets, he had “conversations.” He talked about his religious and moral problems, what, in his opinion, moral standards consist of, and promoted his ethical idealism. The development of idealistic morality constitutes the main core of Socrates' philosophical interests and activities. In Conversations and Discussions, Socrates paid attention to knowledge of the essence of virtue. How can a person exist if he does not know what virtue is? In this case, knowledge of the essence of virtue, knowledge of what is “moral” is for him a prerequisite for moral life and the achievement of virtue. For Socrates, morality merges with knowledge. Morality is the knowledge of what is good and beautiful and at the same time useful for a person, which helps him achieve bliss and happiness in life. A moral person must know what virtue is. Morality and knowledge from this point of view coincide; in order to be virtuous, it is necessary to know virtue as such, as a “universal” that serves as the basis of all particular virtues.

The task of finding the “universal” was to be facilitated by his special philosophical method. The “Socratic” method - its task of discovering “truth” through conversation, argument, polemic, was the source of idealistic “dialectics”. “In ancient times, dialectics was understood as the art of achieving truth by revealing contradictions in the opponent’s judgment and overcoming these contradictions. In ancient times, some philosophers believed that revealing contradictions in thinking and the clash of opposing opinions was the best means of discovering truth.” If Heraclitus' teachings about the struggle of opposites, as the driving force of the development of nature, focused his attention mainly on objective dialectics, Socrates, relying on the Eleatic school (Zeno) and the sophists (Protagoras), for the first time clearly raised the question of subjective dialectics, the dialectical way of thinking. The main components of the “Socratic” method: “irony” and “maieutics” - in form, “induction” and “definition” - in content.

The “Socratic” method is, first of all, a method of consistently and systematically asking questions, with the goal of leading the interlocutor to contradict himself, to admit his own ignorance. Which is Socratic “irony”. But he does not set as his task only the “ironic” disclosure of contradictions in the interlocutor’s statements, but also the overcoming of these contradictions in order to achieve the “truth”. The continuation and addition of “irony” was “maieutics” - the “midwifery art” of Socrates (an allusion to his mother’s profession). He said that he seemed to be helping his listeners to be born again, to recognize the “universal” as the basis of true morality. Socrates meant by this that he was helping his listeners. The main task of the “Socratic” method is to find the “universal” in morality, to establish a universal moral basis for individual, particular virtues. This problem must be solved with the help of a kind of “induction” and “definition”. “Induction” and “determination” in Socrates’ dialectic complement each other.

1. “induction” is the search for commonalities in particular virtues through their analysis and comparison.

2. “definition” is the establishment of genera and species, their relationship.

Next, Socrates moves on to the question of the difference between voluntary and involuntary actions, continuing his “induction” and achieving a new, even more precise “definition” of justice and injustice. The definition of unjust actions according to Socrates is those actions that are committed against friends with the intention of harming them.

Truth and morality for Socrates are coinciding concepts. “Socrates did not make a distinction between wisdom and morality: he recognized a person as both intelligent and moral if a person, understanding what is beautiful and good, is guided by this in his actions and, on the contrary, knowing what is morally ugly, avoids it ... Just actions and, in general, all actions based on virtue are beautiful and good. Therefore, people who know what such actions consist of will not want to commit any other action instead of this one, and people who do not know cannot commit them and, even if they try to commit them, fall into error. Thus, only the wise perform beautiful and good deeds, but the unwise cannot, and even if they try to do so, they fall into error. And since just and in general all beautiful and good actions are based on virtue, it follows from this that justice and every other virtue is wisdom.”

True justice, according to Socrates, is the knowledge of what is good and beautiful, at the same time useful to a person, contributes to his bliss, happiness in life.

Virtue, that is, the knowledge of what is good, can only be achieved by “noble people.” “Farmers and other workers are very far from knowing themselves... After all, they know only what belongs to the body and serves it... And therefore, if self-knowledge is the law of reason, none of these people can be wise from the knowledge of his calling.” How rigidly Socrates separated one class from another is the nature of his religious and ethical teaching. Virtue, like knowledge, according to his teaching, is the privilege of the noble (“non-working”). Socrates, a native of the people, was an implacable enemy of the Athenian masses. He adored the aristocracy; his doctrine of the inviolability, eternity and immutability of moral norms expresses the ideology of this particular class. Socrates' preaching of virtue had a political purpose. He himself says that he cares to prepare as many people as possible who are capable of taking up political activity. At the same time, he conducted the political education of the Athenian citizen in such a direction as to prepare for the restoration of the political dominance of the aristocracy and to return to the “behaviors of the fathers.”

Socrates considers the main virtues to be:

1. restraint - how to tame passions

2. courage - how to overcome danger

3. justice - how to observe divine and human laws.

A person acquires all this through knowledge and self-knowledge. Socrates talks about courage, prudence, justice, and modesty.

Socrates also outlined a classification of state forms, based on the main provisions of his ethical and political teaching.

The government forms mentioned by him are: monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, plutocracy and democracy.

He considers only the aristocracy to be correct and moral, which he characterizes as the power of a small number of educated and moral people.

Monarchy, from the point of view of Socrates, differs from tyranny in that it is based on legal rights, and not on a violent seizure of power, and therefore has a moral significance that tyranny does not have.

Socrates disseminated his views mainly through conversations and discussions. They also formed the philosophical method of Socrates. His goal was to achieve truth by discovering contradictions in the opponent's statements. With the help of correctly selected questions, we found out weak spots opponent. The purpose of his philosophical teachings is to help people.

The tendency to constantly discover contradictions in statements, collide them and thus arrive at new (more reliable) knowledge becomes a source of conceptual (subjective) dialectics. That is why the Socratic method was adopted and developed by the most consistent idealist philosophy of antiquity, Plato. Socrates is the first of the three great philosophers of the classical period. The most outstanding student, follower and, in a certain sense, “systematizer” of his views was Plato. It was he who raised the legacy of Socrates and told us about it.

2. Plato.Bibliography

Plato (427 - 347 BC) - the son of an Athenian citizen. In terms of his social status, he came from the Athenian slave-owning aristocracy. And of course, he was his own man in the Socratic circle. In his youth, he was a student of the circle of a supporter of the teachings of Heraclitus - Cratylus, where he became acquainted with the principles of objective dialectics; he was also influenced by Cratylus's tendency towards absolute relativism. At the age of 20, he was preparing to participate in a competition as the author of a tragedy and by chance, in front of the Dionysius Theater, he heard a discussion in which Socrates participated. She captivated him so much that he burned his poems and became a student of Socrates. This was around the time when the Athenian fleet won its last significant victory in the Peloponnesian War.

Plato shared with the entire circle his disgust for Athenian democracy. After the conviction and death of Socrates, during the period when the democrats returned to power, Plato goes to one of Socrates' senior students - Euclid - in Megara. However, he soon returns to the city again and takes an active part in its public life. After returning to Athens, he made his first trip to Southern Italy and Sicily. He is trying to realize his ideas and took part in political life on the side of the local aristocracy, then headed by Dion, the son-in-law of Dionysius the Elder.

In Athens, Plato worked intensively in the field of philosophy. During his travels, he became acquainted with Pythagorean philosophy, which later influenced him. Diogenes Laertius believes that Plato's teachings are a synthesis of the teachings of Heraclitus, Pythagoras and Socrates. During the same period, Plato, in a garden dedicated to the demigod Academ, founded his own philosophical school - the Academy, which became the center of ancient idealism.

During the reign of the tyrant Dionysius the Younger in Syracuse, Plato again tries to join the political struggle. And this time his desire to put his thoughts into practice does not find the expected understanding. Depressed by political failures, he returns to Athens where he dies at the age of 80.

His work has approximately three periods.

The first begins after the death of Socrates. He creates the first dialogues and treatise “Apology of Socrates”. The form of all the dialogues of this period is similar; they always feature Socrates, who speaks with one of the prominent Athenian or other citizens. The second period coincides with the first trip to Italy. He departs from Socratic “ethical idealism” itself and lays the foundations of objective idealism. During this period, the influence of the philosophy of Heraclitus and the Pythagorean approach to the world somewhat increased in Plato’s thinking. In the second half of this period, which can roughly be limited to the first and second journeys to Syracuse, Plato gives a solid positive presentation of his system. During this period, Plato paid much attention to questions of the method of cognition of ideas. He uses the term “dialectic” to define it and equates this method to the friction of wood on wood, which ultimately leads to the creation of a spark of knowledge. The beginning of the third period is considered to be the dialogue “Parmenides”. He overestimates his previous understanding of the idea, rationalizes it, giving it a general character. Understanding of an idea acquires a certain rigidity (frozenness). In it, the dialectic of ideas is determined by the conflict of being and non-being, which occurs right in the realm of ideas. Thus, movement and development are introduced into the realm of ideas. The dialectic of ideas was intended to support Plato's idealistic monism, which constituted the pinnacle of his rationalism. In subsequent works, the influence of Pythagorean philosophy increasingly manifests itself, strengthening his mysticism and irrationalism.

He solves the main question of philosophy unambiguously - idealistically. The material world that surrounds us and which we perceive with our senses is only a “shadow” and is produced from the world of ideas, i.e. the material world is secondary. All phenomena and objects of the material world are transitory, arise, perish and change (and therefore cannot be truly existing), ideas are unchanging, motionless and eternal. For these properties, Plato recognizes them as genuine, real being and elevates them to the rank of the only object of genuine true knowledge. Between the world of ideas, as a genuine, real being, and non-being (i.e., matter as such, matter in itself), according to Plato, there exists apparent being, derivative being (i.e., the world of truly real, sensually perceived phenomena and things), which separates true existence from non-existence. Real, real things are a combination of an a priori idea (true being) with passive, formless “receiving” matter (non-existence). The relationship between ideas (being) and real things (apparent being) is an important part of his philosophical teaching. Sensibly perceived objects are nothing more than a likeness, a shadow in which certain patterns - ideas are reflected. But he also makes a statement of the opposite nature. Ideas are present in things. This relationship of ideas and things opens up a certain possibility of movement towards irrationalism. He pays a lot of attention to the issue of “hierarchization of ideas.” This hierarchization represents a certain ordered system of objective idealism. The idea of ​​beauty and goodness is one of the most important ideas for Plato. It not only surpasses all really existing goodness and beauty in that it is perfect, eternal and unchangeable (just like other ideas), but also stands above other ideas. Cognition, or achievement, of this idea is the pinnacle of real knowledge and evidence of completeness.

According to Plato, the soul is incorporeal, immortal, it does not arise simultaneously with the body, but exists forever. The body obeys her. It consists of three hierarchically ordered parts:

2. will and noble desires

3. attraction and sensuality.

Souls in which reason predominates, supported by will and noble aspirations, will advance furthest in the process of recollection. “The soul that has seen the most falls into the fruit of a future admirer of wisdom and beauty or a person devoted to the muses and love; the second behind her is the fruit of a king who observes the laws, a warlike man who knows how to rule; third - into fruit statesman, owner, breadwinner; the fourth - into the fruit of a person who diligently engages in exercises or healing of the body; the fifth in order will lead the life of a soothsayer or a person involved in the sacraments; the sixth will begin to advance in poetry or some other area of ​​imitation; the seventh is to be a craftsman or farmer; the eighth will be a sophist or demagogue, the ninth a tyrant.”

Creation of the world. “Who wished that everything would be good and that nothing would be bad if possible, God took care of all visible things that were not at rest, but in discordant and disorderly movement; he brought them out of disorder into order, believing that the second was certainly better than the first. It is impossible now and it was impossible from ancient times for the one who is the highest good to produce something that would not be the most beautiful; Meanwhile, reflection showed him that of all things that are by their nature visible, not a single creation devoid of intelligence can be more beautiful than one that is endowed with intelligence, if we compare both as a whole; and the mind cannot dwell in anything other than the soul. Guided by this reasoning, he arranged the mind in the soul, and the soul in the body, and thus built the Universe, intending to create a creation that was most beautiful and best in nature. So, according to plausible reasoning, it should be recognized that our cosmos is a living being, endowed with soul and mind, and it was truly born with the help of divine providence.”

The most significant for us was Plato’s work on the political system. According to his theory, the state arises because a person as an individual cannot ensure the satisfaction of his basic needs.

Several of Plato’s works are devoted to socio-political issues:

1. treatise "State"

2. dialogues “Laws”, “Politician”.

They are written in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and other philosophers. In them he talks about the model of an “ideal”, best state. A model is not a description of any existing structure or system. On the contrary, a model of a state that has never existed anywhere, but which must arise, that is, Plato talks about the idea of ​​a state, creates a project, a utopia. What did he understand by an “ideal” state, and what did he classify as a negative type of state? The main reason for the deterioration of society, and at the same time political system lies in the “dominance of selfish interests” that determine the actions and behavior of people. In accordance with this main drawback, Plato divides all existing states into four varieties in order of increasing, increasing “selfish interests” in their structure.

1. Timocracy - the power of ambitious people, according to Plato, still retained the features of a “perfect” system. In a state of this type, rulers and warriors were free from agricultural and handicraft work. Much attention is paid to sports exercises, but the desire for enrichment is already noticeable, and “with the participation of wives” the Spartan lifestyle turns into a luxurious one, which determines the transition to oligarchy.

2. Oligarchy. In an oligarchic state there is already a clear division between the rich (ruling class) and the poor, which make possible a completely carefree life for the ruling class. The development of oligarchy, according to Plato's theory, leads to its degeneration into democracy.

3. Democracy. The democratic system further strengthens the disunity between the poor and rich classes of society, uprisings, bloodshed, and struggles for power arise, which can lead to the emergence of the worst state system - tyranny. Tyranny. According to Plato, if a certain action is done too strongly, it leads to the opposite result. So it is here: an excess of freedom in a democracy leads to the emergence of a state that has no freedom at all, living at the whim of one person - a tyrant. Plato contrasts negative forms of state power with his vision of an “ideal” social order. The author pays great attention to determining the place of the ruling class in the state. In his opinion, the rulers of an “ideal” state should be exclusively philosophers in order for prudence and reason to rule in the state. It is philosophers who determine the well-being and justice of Plato’s state, because they are characterized by “... truthfulness, a decisive rejection of any lie, hatred of it and love of truth.” Plato believes that any innovation in an ideal state will inevitably worsen it (the “ideal” cannot be improved). It is obvious that it is philosophers who will protect the “ideal” system and laws from all kinds of innovations, because they possess “... all the qualities of rulers and guardians of an ideal state.” That is why the activities of philosophers determine the existence of an “ideal” state and its immutability. Essentially, philosophers protect other people from vice, which is any innovation in Plato’s state. It is equally important that thanks to philosophers, the government and the entire life of the “ideal” state will be built according to the laws of reason and wisdom, there will be no place for impulses of the soul and feelings.

The fundamental law is that each member of society is obliged to perform only that work for which he is suitable. The author divides all residents of the “ideal” state into three classes: the lower class unites people who produce things necessary for the state or contribute to this; it includes a variety of people associated with crafts, agriculture, market transactions, money, trade and resale - these are farmers, artisans, and merchants. Within this lower class there is also a clear division of labor: a blacksmith cannot engage in trade, and a merchant cannot become a farmer at his own whim.

The second and third classes - the classes of warrior-guardians and rulers-philosophers - are determined not by professional, but by moral criteria. Plato places the moral qualities of these people much higher than the moral qualities of the first class.

From all this we can conclude that Plato creates a totalitarian system of dividing people into categories, which is slightly mitigated by the possibility of moving from class to class (this is achieved through long-term education and self-improvement). This transition is carried out under the leadership of the rulers. It is characteristic that even if among the rulers a person appears who is more suitable for the lower class, then he must be “demoted.” Thus, Plato believes that for the well-being of the state, each person should engage in the work for which he is best suited. If a person does not mind his own business, but within his own class, then this is not yet disastrous for the “ideal” state. When a person undeservedly goes from being a shoemaker, first class) becomes a warrior (second class), or a warrior undeservedly becomes a ruler (third class), then this threatens the collapse of the entire state, therefore such a “leap” is considered the “highest crime” against the system, because for the good of the entire state as a whole, a person should do only the work for which he is best suited.

He also believes that three of the four basic virtues correspond to the three main classes:

1. Wisdom is the virtue of rulers and philosophers

2. Bravery is a virtue of warriors

3. Moderation - the people.

The fourth justice does not apply to individual classes, but is “above the class,” a kind of “sovereign” virtue.

The prototype of power in Plato is a shepherd tending a flock. If we resort to this comparison, then in an “ideal” state, shepherds are rulers, warriors are guard dogs. To keep a flock of sheep in order, shepherds and dogs must be united in their actions, which is what the author strives for.

From the position of his ideal state, Plato classifies existing state forms into two large groups:

1.Acceptable government forms

2. Regressive - decadent.

The first place in the group of acceptable state forms is his “ideal” state. He considered timocracy to be a decadent, descending state form. The main subject of irritation. Plato's concept is democracy, in which he sees the power of the crowd, the ignoble demos, and tyranny, which in ancient Greece starting from the 6th century. BC e. represented a dictatorship directed against the aristocracy.

3. Xenophon. Bibliography

Xenophon is best known as an ancient Greek writer and historian. Unlike other great writers of antiquity, Xenophon was assessed completely differently in different historical periods.

The ancients judged Xenophon very highly: together with Herodotus and Thucydides, he was ranked among the great historians, together with Plato and Antisthenes - among the greatest philosophers of the Socratic movement, his language was considered an example of Attic prose and was compared in its sweetness to honey (the writer himself therefore deserved nicknamed "Attic bee") Meanwhile, as the scope of historical research expanded, it became clear that one, largely formal comparison of Xenophon with other outstanding classical writers was not yet enough for a correct assessment of his work. It is necessary to take into account the richness of the forms in which the development of social thought took place in Ancient Greece, and the prospects for this development. This was a unique nature, which naturally combined the qualities of an observer and a practical worker. A learned tactician and military officer, economist and owner, this man chose as his main subject for his literary studies that which most embodied the synthesis of theory and practice - political journalism. As a writer and thinker, Xenophon was always distinguished by an increased interest in current political problems, realism and flexibility in his assessment current situation, insight in judgments about the future.

Among the Greek writers of the classical era, it is difficult to find another whose work would be determined to such an extent by personal and public political motives as that of Xenophon. This man lived a long life (430-355 BC) and throughout this long journey tirelessly and actively took part in the stormy political struggle that was going on at that time. In his native Athens during the Peloponnesian War, and in the army of mercenaries, in Asia Minor, when the war between Sparta and Persia began, and in Balkan Greece, everywhere this energetic Athenian found himself in the thick of events, among those who, so to speak, directly made history. Possessing a sensitive and impressionable nature, he reacted vividly to all the vicissitudes of the historical drama that was playing out at that time, easily assimilated new ideas, developed with their help his own ideal projects and tirelessly, in different ways, tried to achieve their implementation, real or at least illusory. In general, if it is true that the key to understanding a writer’s work must be sought in his biography, then we have just such a case.

Xenophon came to the conclusion that the best form of government is one headed by an ideal leader (not the Constitution, but the charismatic personality of the ruler should lead the state to prosperity). Based on the experience of managing people, knowledge of Persian customs and government institutions, knowledge of Spartan political institutions, as well as under the influence of the philosophical and ethical teachings of Socrates, Xenophon is trying to create a new political regime that has no analogues. To what extent he succeeded, we can judge from two of his works: most fully and thoroughly from the Cyropaedia, and to a lesser extent from Hiero. The problem of dating the dialogue "Hieron" has not yet been resolved. Therefore, depending on how each researcher resolves this problem for himself, he determines the sequence of writing the Cyropaedia and Hiero. Both in "Kyropedia" and in "Giron" the main characters are real historical figures. But in both works Xenophon uses historical facts for the design of one’s own ideas, i.e., the plot of “Kyropedia”, and the plot of “Hieron” is mostly fiction.

Conclusion

Students and teacher they laid the foundation. Philosophers from all countries have turned to their works and are now turning to them. They had many students and followers. And having become acquainted with their works. You are faced with the question: What kind of Platonov should the Russian land give birth to? First of all, people who can:

1. think

2. think,

3. make the right decisions!

And also such that more than one newly appeared “Socrates” could not lead you to a contradiction. You can largely disagree with their vision of the world, the political system, the law of society, morality and soul. But one cannot but agree that in history there have been many examples of such states, not in everything, but in many ways they are similar to what Socrates and Plato described. To agree or not is a secondary question. You can accept something, but be a fierce opponent in something. But it is simply necessary to take a closer look at their wisdom. One must be a person who “LOVES WISDOM” (PHILOSOPHY).

List of used literature

1. Florensky P. A. The personality of Socrates and the face of Socrates // Questions of philosophy. - M., 2003. - No. 8. - P. 123-131

2. Trigorovich L.A., Martsinkovskaya T.D. Pedagogy and psychology, (Moscow) Year: 2003

3. Gaidenko P.P. The problem of the one and the many and its solution by Plato - 2004

4. Xenophon. Socratic works: [translation from ancient Greek] / Xenophon; [intro. Art. and note. S. Sobolevsky]. - M.: World of Books: Literature, 2007. - 367 p. -- (Great thinkers).

5. Ebert Theodor. Socrates as a Pythagorean and anamnesis in Plato’s dialogue “Phaedo” / Theodor Ebert; [transl. with him. A. A. Rossius]. - St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Publishing House. University, 2005. -- 158, p.

6. Vodolazov G. G. Our contemporary Socrates // Social sciences and modernity. - M., 2005. - No. 5. - P.109-117; No. 6. -- P.128-134.

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