Historical Figures Socrates
Philosopher Greece

Socrates

470 BCE – 399 BCE (71 years)

One of the founders of Western philosophy. He developed the Socratic Method of inquiry and taught Plato, who in turn taught Aristotle.

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Biography

Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher of the Western ethical tradition of thought. He made no writings himself, so his ideas are known through his student Plato.

Key Events

431 BCE
Served in the Peloponnesian War
406 BCE
Opposed illegal trial of Athenian generals
399 BCE
Tried and sentenced to death by hemlock

Historical Relationships