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Greek philosopher
Socrates
[470?-399 B.C.E.]
| short profile | ![marble portrait of Greek philosopher Socrates [470?-399 B.C.E.] at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France](images/socrates_Louvre.jpg "marble portrait of Greek philosopher Socrates [470?-399 B.C.E.] at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France")
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The Greek philosopher Socrates left no writings of his own; what we know about Socrates comes from the writings of
his students Plato [427-347 BCE] and Xenophon [430?-354 BCE], of the contemporary playwright Aristophanes [446?-386? BCE],
and of several other mentions in ancient works.
B I O
t e x t
h e r e
Works About Socrates
browse Greek & Roman philosophy catalog {returns over 10,000 titles} at Amazon
Ancient Works
 | Plato's "Apology" [circa 395 B.C.E.] Translated in 1864 by Benjamin Jowett [1817-93] Plato witnessed the trial of Socrates and published this account soon after Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [5/2012] for FREE ! Kindle Edition from Start Classics/Simon & Schuster [2/2013] for 99¢ indep 8x5 pb [3/2020] for $6.99 CreateSpace 9½x6¾ pb [10/2018] for $6.99 indep 9x6 pb [7/2020] for $7.99 Blurb 9x6 hardcover [4/2019] for $21.99 Jowett's Dialogues Volume 2 is available as free online flip-book at Internet Archive available as free online .PDF file at The Areopagus website |
"Plato's The Symposium" [circa 365 BCE]
purports to be a record of conversations at a dinner party at which both Aristophanes and Socrates are guests, held some seven years after the performance of "The Clouds"
Jowett's Dialogues Volume 1 {includes 'Symposium'} is available as free online flip-book at Internet Archive
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"The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates {Memorabilia} by Xenophon" [1712] Edited by Henry Morley, Translated by Edward Bysshe Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [5/2012] for FREE! CreateSpace 10x8 pb [8/2011] for $11.99 available as free online etext at Project Gutenberg |
 | "Dialogues of Plato: Translated Into English, With Analyses and Introduction" [1871] by Benjamin Jowett [1817-93] Cambridge Library Classics 8½x5½ pb [12/2010] for $57.86 Cambridge Library Classics 8½x5½ pb [12/2010] for $43.97 Cambridge Library Classics 8½x5½ pb [11/2010] for $57.00 Cambridge Library Classics 8½x5½ pb [11/2010] for $51.43 "Laws of Plato" in two volumes [1892] by Benjamin Jowett Cambridge Library Classics 8½x5½ pb set [6/2013] for $118.00 |
 | "Dialogues of Plato" in five volumes [1891] Translated by Benjamin Jowett [1817-93]
Volume 1 {includes 'Symposium'} is available as free online flip-book at Internet Archive Volume 2 {includes 'Apology'} is available as free online flip-book at Internet Archive Volume 3 {includes 'The Republic'} is available as free online flip-book at Internet Archive Volume 4 is available as free online flip-book at Internet Archive Volume 5 {'Laws'} is available as free online flip-book at Internet Archive |
 | "Conversations of Socrates" [1923] by Xenophon of Athens [430?-354 B.C.E.] Translated by E.C. Marchant [1864-1960] & O.J. Todd includes Xenophon's "Apology" [circa 386 BCE], "Memorabilia" [circa 370 BCE], "Symposium" [circa 365 BCE], "Oeconomicus" [circa 360 BCE] Loeb Classical Library 6½x4½ hardcover [11/2013] for $28.00 Loeb Classical Library 6½x4½ hardcover [1923] out of print/used available as free online flip-book at Internet Archive |
 | "Conversations of Socrates" [1990] by Xenophon of Athens [430?-354 B.C.E.] Translated & Introduced by Robin H. Waterfield & Hugh Tredennick includes Xenophon's "Apology" [circa 386 BCE], "Memorabilia" [circa 370 BCE], "Symposium" [circa 365 BCE], "Oeconomicus" [circa 360 BCE], with Introduction for each Kindle Edition from Penguin [2/2004] for $9.99 Penguin Classics 7¾x5 pb [7/90] for $14.03 |
 | "The Trial and Death of Socrates by Plato" [2000] distinguished translations by G.M.A. Grube [1899-1982], as revised by John Cooper includes "Apology", "Crito", "Euthyphro", and "Phaedo" (excerpt) Kindle Edition from Hackett Publng [2000 edition] for $5.35 Hackett Publng pb [12/2000] for $7.68 Hackett Publng 8½x5½ library hardcover [12/2000] for $25.00 same content choices, 1871 translations by Benjamin Jowett [1817-93] IndoEuropean Publng 9x6 pb [7/2009] for $12.95 |
 | "The Trial and Death of Socrates by Plato" [2014] includes Introduction, "Apology", "Crito", and "Phaedo" in 110 pages CreateSpace 9x6 pb [1/2014] for $8.99 |
 | "A Man Named Socrates: The Wisdom of Socrates" for Kindle [2014] contains: "Xenophon's Socrates" translated by Edward Bysshe [1712], "Plato's Socrates" translated by Benjamin Jowett [1871], and "Socrates" by Wm. Ellery Leonard [1915] Kindle Edition from Amazon Digital Services [3/2014] for $3.00 |
Modern Works
 | "Great Thinkers A-Z" [2004] Edited by Julian Baggini & Jeremy Stangroom
Continuum 8½x5½ pb [6/2004] for $49.95 Continuum 8¾x5½ hardcover [6/2004] out of print/used M.J.F. Books 9x6 hardcover [6/2004] out of print/used descriptions of 100 philosophers & their works, including St. Thomas Aquinas, Hannah Arendt, Aristotle, St. Augustine of Hippo, A.J. Ayer, Francis Bacon, Simone de Beauvoir, Walter Benjamin, Jeremy Bentham, Henri Bergson, Albert Camus, Noam Chomsky, Auguste Comte, Charles Darwin, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, René Descartes, John Dewey, Albert Einstein, Erasmus, Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud, Mahatma Gandhi, Kurt Godel, F.A. Hayek, Georg Hegel, Martin Heidegger, Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, Edmund Husserl, William James, Immanuel Kant, Soren Kierke-gaard, Gottfried Leibniz, John Locke, Niccolo Machiavelli, Karl Marx, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, John Stuart Mill, Michel de Montaigne, Friedrich Nietzsche, Robert Nozick, Thomas Paine, Blaise Pascal, Karl Popper, Pythagoras, Richard Rorty, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Bertrand Russell, George Santayana, Jean-Paul Sartre, Arthur Schopenhauer, Socrates, Baruch Spinoza, Alan Turing, Simone Weil, and Ludwig Wittgenstein |
 | "Brill's Companion To The Reception of Socrates" [2019] Edited by Christopher Moore, PhD contributors are: Dolores Amat, Hayden W. Ausland, Mark Beck, Brady Bowman, Nadia Bray, Jacques A. Bromberg, Alison Calhoun, Damian Caluori, F. Javier Campos-Daroca, Curtis Dozier, Juraj Franek, Samuel Frederick, James Hankins, Leofranc Holford-Strevens, Brian Earl Johnson, David Johnson, Mark Joyal, Oskari Kuusela, Leonard Lawlor, Cedric Littlewood, Antis Loizides, Felicity P. Loughlin, Menahem Luz, Sean McConnell, editor Moore, David J. Murphy, Sandra Peterson, Ute Pietruschka, Susan Prince, Christopher C. Raymond, David Schur, John Sellars, Karel Thein, Michele Trizio, Elvira Wakelnig, David Conan Wolfsdorf, Lori Yamato Brill 9½x6½ hardcover [6/2019] out of print/used |
 | "Conversations With Socrates and Plato: How A Post-Materialist Social Order Can Solve The Challenges of Modern Life and Insure Our Survival" [2019] by Neal K. Grossman imagined dialogue/symposium with Plato, Socrates, Spinoza, and William James Kindle Edition from IFF Books [7/2019] for $39.99 {sic} John Hunt Publng/IFF Books 8½x5¾ pb [8/2019] for $45.00 |
 | "The Great Philosophers: Socrates, Plato & Aristotle (Children's Biographies Series)" [5th grade & up; 2019] from Speedy Publng
Kindle Edition from Speedy/Dissected Lives [11/2019] for $4.99 Dissected Lives 8½x8½ pb [11/2019] for $12.36 Dissected Lives 8½x8½ hardcover [8/2019] for $24.71 |
 | "Socrates (Polity Classic Thinkers Series)" [2019] by William J. Prior Kindle Edition from Polity [11/2019] for $23.70 {sic} Polity 9x6 pb [11/2019] for $24.95 Polity 9x6¼ hardcover [11/2019] for $49.15 |
Quotations of Socrates
“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.”
“Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.”
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
“Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.”
“By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.”
“Wisdom begins in wonder.”
“It is better to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one.”
“The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
“Smart people learn from everything and everyone. Average people [learn] from their experiences. “When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”
“Things are in a bad way: children disrespect their parents, and everyone is writing a book.”
“I only know that I know nothing.”
“Man must rise above the Earth – to the top of the atmosphere and beyond – for only thus “The greatest happiness is to be just. It is such a great gift that those who commit evil deeds are insane.” “Life is worth living only in joy, and man's only joy is the unswerving search of truth.”
Stupid people already have all the answers.”
will he fully understand the world in which he lives.”
~~ line spoken by 'Socrate' in the 1971 Italian film
~~ line spoken by 'Socrate' in the 1971 Italian film
Stageplays, Movies, Other Media
"Trial and Death of Socrates" [1939] /tt0032948/
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"The Death of Socrates (399 B.C.)" [CBS-TV May 1953] Season 1, episode 14 of the "You Are There" CBS-TV series [1953-57] Produced by Charles Russell; directed by Sidney Lumet; written by Kate Nickerson & Arnold Manoff; hosted by Walter Cronkite; starring Barry Jones {as Socrates}, John Cassavetes & Paul Newman {as Plato}, Shepperd Strudwick, Philip Bourneuf, John Breslin, Robert Culp, William Devlin, Richard Kiley, E.G. Marshall Woodhaven Ent. b&w DVD [11/2004] out of prodn/used full credits at IMDb • series entry at Wikipedia |
"The Trial and Death of Socrates" [CBS-TV 1960] /tt2275263/
Season 1, Episode 26 of The Robert Herridge Theater TV Series [1960]
"Barefoot In Athens" [NBC-TV Nov 1966] /tt0197270/ episode of the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" TV series
directed by George Schaefer, starring Peter Ustinov as Socrates, Geraldine Page as Xantippe
"Le Socrate" [France Oct 1968] /tt0128558/
"The Trial of Socrates" short film [BFA Educational Media 1971] /tt7913604/
Socrates is portrayed by Victor Buono
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=380KSdkV6zY
"Socrates / Socrate" TV movie [RAI-TV Italy/TVE Spain June 1971]
 | 2-hour color TV movie co-written & directed by Roberto Rossellini; music by Mario Nascimbene; starring Jean Sylvère as Socrate, Anne Caprile as Santippe
Italian-language Versatil/Luce/Ediçao Especial color DVD [2009] for $14.87 full credits at IMDb • movie entry at Wikipedia watch full movie in Italian w/English subtitles [7/2014 upload; 1:53:43] online at YouTube watch full movie in Italian w/Spanish subtitles [11/2009 upload; 1:53:43] online at Internet Archive |
"An Evening with Orson Welles: Socrates Speeches" video short [1972] /tt11471948/
"Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" cult classic [Orion Pictures Feb 1989] /tt0096928/
starring Alex Winter & Keanu Reeves, with Tony Steedman as Socrates
"Bill & Ted's Excellent Board Game" released by Steve Jackson Games in 2016
"We're Still Here" [France 1997] /tt0119808/
Two housewives discuss philosophical themes (actually an updated dialogue of Plato and Socrates) while doing housework;
starring Aurore Clément, Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Luc Godard
"Sophie's World" [1999] /tt0125507/
"The Trial of Socrates" [Kanalya Pictures 2010]
 | Hour-long version of the trial of Socrates, based on Plato's "Apology", divided into 23 chapters, each by a different director; the film follows the story of the first martyr of free speech, through Bulgaria, France, Italy, Chile, Slovenia, Spain, Vermont, Texas, California, and New York; the Socrates character changes from a man to a woman, from young to old, from human to animal, but the common thread to all twenty-three scenes is the search for truth, regardless of the price that is paid to attain it • overall direction by Natasa Prosenc
Kanalya Pictures color DVD [2010] for $59.00 direct from producer full credits at IMDb official movie site |
 | "Socrates: Biography of A Great Thinker" short film [Jan 2015]
watch 1/2015 short film [6:05] online at YouTube "Socrates" short film [Oct 2017] 21-chapter documentary short produced by WikiVidi.com using robot narrator female voice watch 10/2017 short film [47:49] online at YouTube "Philosopher Socrates: Biographical Documentary" short film [2018] 8-minute documentary short produced by Biographical Films, featuring Caro G. Amazon Instant Video [2018] not available in USA |
"Socrates: The Art of Living" documentary [Cosmote History TV 2019] /tt11280776/
Episode 3/10 of "Ancient Greek Philosophers" [2018–2019]
original Greek title: "Arxaioi Ellines Filosofoi: Gefyres Gnosis" • Produced by Simos Manganis
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"Barefoot In Athens" stageplay [1951] by Maxwell Anderson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_in_Athens
http://www.ibdb.com/broadway-production/barefoot-in-athens-1971
"Socrates On Trial: A Play Based On Aristophane's Clouds and Plato's Apology, Crito, and Phaedo - Adapted For Modern Performance"
[Univ Toronto Press 2008] by Andrew David Irvine ISBN 978-0-8020-9783-5
 | "The Death of Socrates" stageplay [2015] by Patrick Bruskiewich 31-page playscript for Kindle; one-person, one-act script 'based on Plato's tribute to Socrates'; suggested performance length of one hour may not be accurate Kindle Edition from Pythagoras Publng [7/2015] for 99¢ |
 | “Socrates” stageplay [2019] by Tim Blake Nelson 2 hour 45 minute stageplay first produced by The Public Theater and performed in 2019 at the Off Broadway Martinson Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC; Michael Stuhlbarg as the title character, Teagle F. Bougere as Plato, Miriam A. Hyman as Xanthippe Dramatist's Play Service 7¾x5¼ pb [10/2019] out of print/scarce |
 | "Death of Socrates" [CBS Radio aired 14 March 1948] 'remote' broadcast from outside the prison where friends try to dissuade Socrates from drinking the cup of hemlock • Produced, co-written & directed by Robert Lewis Shayon; co-written by Joseph Liszt; hosted by John Daly; starring Walter Handon {as Socrates}, Oliver Cliff, Carl Swenson, Gale Sondergaard, John Webster, Philip Clark listen to radio recording [5/2015 upload; 29:08] online at YouTube |
 | "Acropolis Now" BBC Radio series [2000-2001 & 2002] comedy radio show for the BBC set in Ancient Greece featuring Aristophanes, Heraclitus, The Oracle, Plato, Socrates, Xantippe, other famous Greeks; written by Lynne Truss; 6 episodes in 2000, six more episodes in 2002, with subsequent reruns 2006 thru 2012 radio series entry at Wikipedia listen to audio recordings [3/2019 upload] online at Internet Archive: Season 1 + Season 2 |
 | "Final Moments: Peyron, David, and The Death of Socrates" [2001] by Claudia Einecke book compares three paintings entitled "Death of Socrates" - left to right, below: popular 1787 painting by Jacques Louis David [1748-1825] (owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City), lesser-known 1787 painting by Jean-François Pierre Peyron [1744-1814] (owned by National Museum of Art in Copenhagen, Denmark), and lesser-known 1788 painting by Jean-François Pierre Peyron [1744-1814] (owned by Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska) Joslyn Art Museum hardcover [2001] out of print/used |
![popular 1787 painting of 'The Death of Socrates' by Jacques Louis David [1748-1825]](images/the-death-of-socrates-jacques-louis-david.jpg "popular 1787 painting of 'The Death of Socrates' by Jacques Louis David [1748-1825]")
![lesser-known 1787 painting of 'The Death of Socrates' by Jean-François Pierre Peyron [1744-1814]](images/paintingDeathofSocrates-byPeyron.jpg "lesser-known 1787 painting of 'The Death of Socrates' by Jean-François Pierre Peyron [1744-1814]")
![lesser-known 1788 painting of 'The Death of Socrates' by Jean-François Pierre Peyron [1744-1814]](images/paintingDeathofSocrates1788-byPeyron.jpg "lesser-known 1788 painting of 'The Death of Socrates' by Jean-François Pierre Peyron [1744-1814]")
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small replica of carved Socrates bust at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France cast alabaster 6"-tall bust sculpture imported from Greece [2019] for $29.90 small replica of Socrates statue at the Socrates Academy in Athens, Greece
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Image Gallery
![1867 painting of Socrates speaking by Belgian artist Louis J. Lebrun [1844-1900]](images/paintingSocrates-speaking.jpg "painting of Socrates speaking by Belgian artist Louis J. Lebrun [1844-1900]")
![1762 painting of 'The Death of Socrates' by Jacques-Philippe-Joseph de Saint-Quentin [1738-1780]](images/paintingDeathofSocrates-bySaintQuentin.jpg "1762 painting of 'The Death of Socrates' by Jacques-Philippe-Joseph de Saint-Quentin [1738-1780]")
Friends & Family
Socrates was born circa 470 B.C.E. in Ancient Athens; he probably trained as a stonemason; he served in the military to defeat Sparta;
he spoke out against the ruling tyrants of Athens and was put on trail and ordered to drink poison hemlock; he died in 399 B.C.E.
possible first wife Myrto, daughter of Lysimachus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrto
sons Sophroniscus and Menexenus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menexenus
wife Xanthippe [] - married circa 425
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthippe
third son Lamprocles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamprocles
disciple Aeschines of Sphettus [425?-350? B.C.E.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeschines_of_Sphettus
disciple & star pupil Antisthenes [446?-366? B.C.E.], founder of Cynic philosophy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisthenes
student Aristippus of Cyrene [435?-356? B.C.E.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristippus
playwright & poet Aristophanes [446?-386? BC)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristophanes
"The Clouds" [423 B.C.E.], the stageplay in which Socrates was cruelly caricatured
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clouds
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2562/2562-h/2562-h.htm
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.169782/page/n9/mode/2up = hickie 1908
http://www.archive.org/details/aristophanesclo01arisgoog/page/n9/mode/2up = 1915
http://www.amazon.com/Clouds-Aristophanes-ebook/dp/B081QPT66G/
disciple philosopher Plato [427-347 B.C.E.]
'Quotations from Greek philosopher Plato' Page at the Working Minds Philosophy website
disciple Xenophon of Athens [430?-354 B.C.E.]
entry at Wikipedia
Primary extant works of Xenophon relating to Socrates include: "Apology of Socrates To The Jury" [circa 386 BCE]; "The Memorabilia" [circa 370 BCE];
"Symposium" [circa 365 BCE] in which Socrates and his companions discuss what they take pride in with respect to themselves; and "Oeconomicus" [circa 360 BCE],
a Socratic dialogue pertaining to household management. Other major works of Xenophon include: "Constitution of The Spartans / Polity of The
Lacedaemonians" [circa 375 BCE]; "Anabasis" [circa 370 BCE]; "Cyropaedia" [circa 370 BCE]; and
"Hellenica" [circa 362 BCE].
 | "The Cambridge Companion To Xenophon" [2016] by Michael A. Flower Kindle Edition from Cambridge Univ Press [12/2016] for $17.20 Cambridge Univ Press 9x6 pb [12/2016] for $34.53 Cambridge Univ Press 9¼x6¼ hardcover [4/2017] for $110.00 {sic} |
L i n k s
Socrates entry at Wikipedia
History Channel page about Socrates
here on the Socrates [470?-399 B.C.E.] Page at Maison d'Être Philosophy Bookstore
top of page • short profile • works about Socrates • quotations of Socrates • stageplays, movies, other media •
image gallery • friends, family, colleagues • links
see also Maison d'Être Philosophy Bookstore's Plato [427-347 B.C.E.] Page
and Quotations from Greek philosopher Plato Page at the Working Minds Philosophy website
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