Inspirational Death of Socrates

Introduction

“I am the wisest man on earth because I know one thing that I know nothing”. These mindful words are of Socrates. He is one of the most popular philosophers of all time. He sacrificed his life for humanity without even thinking twice. Socrates had not written his biography but we can know about him by reading books of his student, Plato. He was from a very poor family and his father was a sculptor. He fought for his nation as a young army man. Many times during the war he used to go to a lonely place and think for several hours. When he didn’t like army and sculptor work then he opened his own school where young students used to ask a wide variety of questions from him. Socrates was a very open-minded person but at that time people of Athens used to follow dogmatic rules. Due to his revolutionary ideas, he gained the attention of many other philosophers but few of them became his enemies.

Death of Socrates

The people of Athens were very conservative and there was great turmoil in Athens during the lifetime of Socrates. But Socrates had a very revolutionary thought process and he used to call himself a global citizen. Many people tried to kill Socrates to mute his voice. Many opponent philosophers convinced ministers of Athens that Socrates was misleading the youth of Athens. A case was filed against Socrates and that case was fought by his student, Plato. Unfortunately, he lost his case and two options were offered to him. The first option was to leave Athens immediately and never come back again. The second option was to drink a cup of poison. Socrates knew that it was a plot against him but selected the second option and drank a cup of poison. If Socrates had selected option 1 and went away from Athens then his philosophy might have proved wrong. His sacrifice made him immortal in the history of mankind.

Conclusion

Socrates was a very practical person. Once there was a boy with a very negative attitude and he did not know how to become successful. One of his friends suggested that he must go to Socrates to understand the meaning of life. He searched for Socrates and visited his school. The boy asked him, "how to become successful and achieve glory in life?" Socrates replied that he will answer him the next day. The next day, the boy reached the school of Socrates and Socrates told him to stand in a shallow part of the nearby river. After some time, Socrates went to meet the boy in the river and immediately pushed the head of the boy into the river. The boy tried very hard to come out of the water but he failed to do so. Finally, after some time, Socrates allowed him to come out of the water and the boy started gasping. On this, Socrates told the boy, "when you will become desperate for success just like oxygen then you will surely achieve success." Socrates believed in lifelong learning and taught students in a very practical manner.