Wikipedia Tour: Key Philosophers (1 of 20)

Wikipedia Tour: Key Philosophers

Welcome to our Wikipedia Tour: Key Philosophers. Each day we’ll send you a link to a new article about an influential philosopher on Wikipedia. The introduction to each day’s article is included in the installment so you can choose to read just the introduction or the full article.

Happy reading!

Socrates

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Socrates (Greek: Σωκράτης, ʼs�'krɘtiːz, Sōkrátēs; c. 469 BC–399 BC^[1]) was a Classical Greek philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, in reality he is an enigmatic figure known only through other people's accounts. It is Plato's dialogues that have largely created today's impression of him.^[2]

Through his portrayal in Plato's dialogues, Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who also lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus. The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions are asked not only to draw individual answers, but to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. It is Plato's Socrates that also made important and lasting contributions to the fields of epistemology and logic, and the influence of his ideas and approach remains strong in providing a foundation for much western philosophy that followed.

As one recent commentator has put it, Plato, the idealist, offers "an idol, a master figure, for philosophy. A Saint, a prophet of the 'Sun-God', a teacher condemned for his teachings as a heretic."^[3] Yet, the 'real' Socrates, like many of the other Ancient philosophers, remains at best enigmatic and at worst unknown.

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Wikipedia Tour: Key Philosophers (1 of 20)