Socrates was born in Athens in the 5th century BCE — a city that called itself the cradle of democracy. He was not an aristocrat. Not a politician. He did not seek power. His weapon was words. His method was questions.
He walked through markets, streets, and public squares, engaging craftsmen, soldiers, poets, and statesmen in conversation. Socrates did not teach in the conventional sense. He did not offer answers. He forced people to doubt what they believed was obvious.
His greatest achievement was not a theory or a system.
His achievement was a **way of thinking**.
What later became known as the Socratic method — a sequence of questions that gradually exposes contradictions, false certainty, and the illusion of knowledge.
Socrates famously said,
“I know that I know nothing.”
This was not an admission of weakness.
It was a declaration of war on arrogance.
And this is where his difficulties began.
Athens grew tired of doubt. After wars, defeats, and internal crises, society demanded stability, simple answers, and reassurance. Socrates offered none of these. Instead, he dismantled illusions. He revealed that those who claimed wisdom often understood very little.
He was accused of corrupting the youth.
Of disrespecting the gods.
But in reality, his crime was something else — **dangerous independence of thought**.
At his trial, Socrates did not beg for mercy. He did not renounce his words. He claimed that he had served the city like a gadfly, keeping it awake. For this, he was sentenced to death.
He had a chance to escape.
His friends arranged a way out.
Socrates refused.
He accepted the sentence to make one thing clear:
when a law is unjust, its injustice must be seen by all —
even if the cost is life itself.
Socrates died by drinking hemlock.
But his death was not an end.
It became a beginning.
He laid the foundation for philosophy, ethics, logic, and critical thinking. Without Socrates, there would be no Plato. Without Plato, no Aristotle. Without them — no intellectual tradition of the West.
Socrates showed that the most dangerous force for any system
is a human being who asks the right questions.
And perhaps that is why his trial has never truly ended.