Though Socrates left no written works, there were many ancient accounts of his life and his philosophy. The most important of the surviving accounts are from three contemporaries (the comic poet Aristophanes, the historian Xenophon, and the philosopher Plato) along with two later Greek biographers: Plutarch (1st cent. AD) and Diogenes Laertius (3rd cent. AD). The "Socratic Problem" is to determine from those varying accounts what Socrates actually said and believed. We know that Socrates was an eccentric and often irritating gadfly, who went about Athens engaging others in philosophical conversation. He rolled his eyes and cocked his head backwards as he walked, usually barefoot and in tattered clothes; his persistent questioning exposed the contradictions in people's claims of knowledge. Socrates himself never claimed definitive knowledge, but he made many enemies among those he refuted and embarrassed. His careful, logical questioning has become known as the "Socratic method of teaching," and it later became a major alternative to the traditional lecture method. Socrates believed that even when we strive to lead the "examined life," we cannot definitively establish truth or absolute knowledge; we can only refute wrong thinking. He was interested in religion as it applies to moral virtue, affirming that the condition of one's soul is related to the "most important things" (such as justice, truth, and piety). Socrates said we must simply live a life of reason in an effort to determine which views are better than others. In 399 BC, Socrates was brought to trial on a charge of impiety. He was sentenced to death, which he accepted in obedience to the rule of law. Socrates spent his last day in philosophical conversation with friends before carrying out his sentence by drinking extract of hemlock.
Renowned psychiatrist and educator Armand Nicholi here presents a fascinating comparison of the beliefs of Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis. For all the variety of specific religious beliefs, there are fundamentally only two kinds of people: believe...
Following the extraordinary success of the New York Times bestseller Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas latest book offers inspirational and intellectually rigorous thoughts about the great questions surrounding us all today.
The Greek philosopher Socrates f...
Narrator: Eric Metaxas and the contributing authors Published: 10/13/2011
Aurelius Augustinus was a key figure in the transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. He lived at a time when no distinction was made between philosophy and theology, and the purpose of both was to show the way to wisdom, happiness, an...
Twenty-seven years ago, Matthieu Ricard gave up a promising career as a scientist to study Tibetan Buddhism-not as a detached observer but by immersing himself in its practice under the guidance of its greatest living masters. Years later, this proj...
With the same passionate scholarship and analytical audacity he brought to the character of God, Jack Miles now approaches the literary and theological enigma of Jesus. In so doing, he tells the story of a broken promise–God’s ancient c...
Orthodoxy was named as one of Publishers Weekly's 10 indispensable spiritual classics of the past 1500 years. It is the personal journal of one man's search for understanding culminating in his conversion to Catholicism. Written with wisdom and wit,...
Narrator: John Franklyn-Robbins Published: 09/17/2013
In 2006, Christianity Today voted The God Who Is There as one of the top fifty books that have shaped evangelicals.
For decades, The God Who Is There has been the landmark book that changed the way the church sees the world. In Francis Schaeffers r...
Through interviews with twelve distinguished philosophers-including atheists, agnostics, and believers-Talking God works toward a philosophical understanding and evaluation of religion. Along the way, Gary Gutting and his interviewees challenge many...
Kierkegaard wasnt really a philosopher in the academic sense. Yet he produced what many people expect of philosophy. He didnt write about the world, he wrote about life, about how we live and how we choose to live. His subject was the individual and...
