Socrates, the Midwife of Souls

A detailed Summary of Socrates, the Midwife of Souls

Socrates, the great Greek philosopher, was a man of the people. His father was an artisan, one of the stone masons who squared, fixed and polished the blocks of which the Parthenon was built. Socrates took up the chisel of his father, the stone mason. He felt himself to be a born artisan, but he was more attracted to fashioning a different sort of material, the human soul, with the same "certainty, knowledge and workmanly conscientiousness" he applied to his stone work. He felt the artisan bound to his trade by strict and delicate rules, was most capable of understanding the human soul. He wanted to invent a technique for producing noble characters.

His mother, who was a midwife, provided another foundation for Socrates' life vision. He would deliver souls of the truth they bore within themselves. He would become a midwife for souls.

Socrates was known for being very strange, almost extravagant in his behavior. However, he was also a man of great common sense and strict logic. Fat, with bulging eyes, snub nose, broad nostrils, and a wide mouth, he was considered the ugliest man in Athens. Since he held the body in such low esteem, he rarely took a bath. But, as his friends knew, he was "all glorious within," "the most upright

Throughout his life, Socrates urged everyone he met to take thought for nothing but his own soul. "My only business", he said, "is to go through the streets and persuade you young and old alike, not to be concerned with your body or your material fortune as much as with your soul and how to make it better. My task is to tell you that riches do not bring virtue, but that virtue is a source of all prosperity and of all good things whether or public and private." Before he was sentenced to death by the Popular Tribunal, he was urged "to rest from harassing people, to relax his view. Even some of his friends were trying to silence him." In reply he reaffirmed his divine mission,

"Strange, indeed, would be my conduct, O men of Athens, if I who, when I was ordered by the generals whom you chose to command me at Potidaea and Amphipolis and Delium, remained where they placed me, like any other man, facing death; if, I say, now, when, as I conceive and imagine, God orders me to fulfill the philosopher's mission of searching into myself and other men, I were to desert my post through fear of death, or any other fear; that would indeed be strange, and I might justly be arraigned in court for denying the existence of the gods, if I disobeyed the oracle because I was afraid of death: then I should be fancying that I was wise when I was not wise. For this fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown; since no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. Is there not here conceit of knowledge, which is a disgraceful sort of ignorance? And this is the point in which, as I think, I am superior to men in general, and in which I might perhaps fancy myself wiser than other men, - that whereas I know but little of the world below, I do not suppose that I know: but I do know that injustice and disobedience to a better, whether God or man, is evil and dishonorable, and I will never fear or avoid a possible good rather than a certain evil. And therefore if you let me go now, and reject the counsels of Anytus, who said that if I were not put to death I ought not to have been prosecuted, and that if I escape now, your sons will all be utterly ruined by listening to my words - if you say to me, Socrates, this time we will not mind Anytus, and will let you off, but upon one condition, that are to inquire and speculate in this way any more, and that if you are caught doing this again you shall die; - if this was the condition on which you let me go, I should reply: Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting anyone whom I meet after my manner, and convincing him, saying: O my friend, why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? Are you not ashamed of this? And if the person with whom I am arguing says: Yes, but I do care; I do not depart or let him go at once; I interrogate and examine and cross-examine him, and if I think that he has no virtue, but only says that he has, I reproach him with undervaluing the greater, and overvaluing the less. And this I should say to everyone whom I meet, young and old, citizen and alien, but especially to the citizens, inasmuch as they are my brethren. For this is the command of God, as I would have you know; and I believe that to this day no greater good has ever happened in the state than my service to the God. For I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons and your properties, but first and chiefly to care about th

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Approximate Word count = 2643
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: People