Socrates' Mission

Authors

Daniel W. Graham, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Mormon studies, Socrates, philosophy

Abstract

Socrates is the quintessential watershed of ancient thought. He is known as the thinker who turned philosophy away from cosmological speculation to ethics and value theory. In his own time, he was hailed by Apollo’s Oracle at Delphi as the man who was wiser than all others, and he was lampooned by Aristophanes on the comic stage as a quack, a sophist, and a fraud. His followers included two of the greatest traitors Athens produced, Alcibiades and Critias, and two of the greatest thinkers and moralists, Plato and Xenophon. In the end, he was tried on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth and was condemned to death. His enemies saw him as a heretic, while his friends saw him as a paragon of piety and righteousness. Who was Socrates and what was he up to that he should polarize his city? I will argue, with his friends, that Socrates was a man of God who, in his own idiosyncratic way, brought about a philosophical and religious revolution.

Recommended Citation

Graham, Daniel W. (2016) "Socrates' Mission," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 55: Iss. 4, Article 9.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol55/iss4/9