People were terrified, Socrates could be unsettling. He refused to compromise his method to appease their fearful state, and so he was condemned to death.

Socrates was killed because he had the courage to ask difficult questions. Under Pericles, a man like Socrates could practice his method of discourse, his often times unsettling manner of investigation. After the plague, in which Pericles perished, Athens was in a state of shock and disorder - they had, not only the aftermath of the devastating Peloponnesian War, but also a plague that decimated the city's population.

People were terrified, Socrates could be unsettling. He refused to compromise his method to appease their fearful state, and so he was condemned to death.

Didn?t he have the option to go into exile?but refused :Glasses:

Some of the so-called students of Socrates were involved in treasonous activities against Athens (e.g., Critias & Alcibiades). See:

Trial of Socrates - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is quite possible that that is the real reason why they killed him, though it is difficult to say definitively without official records of what happened.

Pyrrho;124221 wrote:

Some of the so-called students of Socrates were involved in treasonous activities against Athens (e.g., Critias & Alcibiades). See:

Trial of Socrates - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is quite possible that that is the real reason why they killed him, though it is difficult to say definitively without official records of what happened.

If so, they certainly did not seem very enthusiastic about killing Socrates. When he was found guilty he was offered the choice instead of suggesting a fine which he could pay, and then be freed. He offered an insultingly trivial sum of money, which they could not accept without losing face. Then, after Socrates was condemned to death, they let it be known to his friends that if he decided to escape and go to another city, the guards would look the other way. Of course, Socrates refused to do that too. For more on the significance of this, see my earlier post.

It was arranged for him to "escape" to another city. He refused because he held that he had a duty to obey even an unjust law. See Plato's dialogue, Crito where this issue is discussed at length. What is interesting is that he was arrested, and condemned to death because he would not obey the law. This view is defended by Socrates in Plato's Apology. So in one dialogue, Socrates defends his breaking an unjust law which forbids him to teach his views. But, tnen, later, he defends obeying an unjust law which condemned him to death. And important part of understanding Socrates is how these contrary views can be reconciled.

In the history around Oedipus Antigone refers to laws by humans versus:Glasses: laws by the gods

Yes, one view is that he distinguished between man-made laws, and higher laws. He said that he had been commanded to teach by God, and that the laws of God superseded those of man. It is the kind of distinction that later civil disobedients have made. For example, Martin Luther King in his, "Letter from a Birmingham Jail".

I hope I don't get banned for bringing up this topic. But, I really want to talk about his personal life with his fellow philosophers. It seems to me that he enjoyed their physical companionship as well as the mental stimulation of his male friends. When I brought it up in school, the teacher just bipassed the topic, saying that nobody knows wink wink, and that it doesn't matter. I think it does matter because the truths he came to recognize came from personal companionship with his consorts. Also, I think he was killed for corrupting the minds of the youth due to this main factor and not his philosophical beliefs. That is not something I strongly believe, but I would like to discuss it further.

Searched f:shocked:or civil resistence but had no results on the forum, are US citizens aware of geo-politics?

Was Socrates gay? Read Plato's Phaedrus to get a good idea of at least Socrates' orientations.

A small note about Phaedrus itself, it is string of contradictions. For instance, Socrates is conversing with just one other person, Lysias. It is also strange in its setting, since Socrates is actually leaving the city, departing the norms in which he is especially partial. Socrates hated leaving his home (did not want to visit other cities? Crito 52d) and only left (willingly?) for military service. But this is all in the context of Plato, since Aristophanes has Socrates all over the place. Also, the method of inquiry seems to be drastically different. For example, many of Socrates' dialogs are very short question and answer discussions (what we know as the elenchus) because he cannot "understand or make long speeches." However, in Phaedrus, Socrates makes huge speeches, one of which is the biggest (and most famous of Greek antiquity)? the "great speech" which occurs from 243e to 257b. It is nothing short of amazing? and totally out of character for Socrates. It would be like replacing Samuel L Jackson in Pulp Fiction with Andy Dick half way through the movie. But Socrates says that his drastic change is attributed to a possession by the Gods. Phaedrus is extensive to say the least, so I'm just putting in selective bits about his possible orientation (if there is any).

Was Socrates gay? Back then (as many of you have mentioned), what it means to be homosexual today was not as taboo or uncommon back then. But to say that one is a homosexual of sorts is to say that there is some sort of preference towards one's own sex. This is not the case for Socrates. What Socrates is in to is what is referred to as a paederastic relationship. In this type of relationship, the older male would court the younger male by showing great signs of love and devotion. The older man would most likely be married and the young boy not even qualified to be called a man. This is what is called the relationship of the erastes and eromenos (the young and old). Was their any type of sexual relationship? Probably. But one of the supposed key features of the relationship was to share in an intercourse of knowledge?. The younger boy would get knowledge and the older man pleasure. This is actually the topic in which Lysias and Socrates discuss at great length in the first part of the dialog.

And Lysias goes to great lengths (and a fantastic if not somewhat creepy by today's standard) epidictic speech which Socrates finds is full of problems (of course). Socrates says at the end of Lysias speech that love is an irrational impulse that contradicts our desire to do what is right in favor of "beauty." A "lover," Socrates explains, is inevitably bound to be harmful to the boy. So the eros (love? which is a type of madness to Socrates) must be avoided, since it will devour your life, property, etc.

Socrates in the end concludes that the type of love Lysias proclaims, this eros, must be avoided because if anything, the madness incurred is not preferable to a rational state of mind. Socrates in the second part goes onto his "great speech" and the wonderful two winged horse, the chariot, and the charioteer eoiketo. It is wonderful. He changes tempo because at the end of the first part, her realizes that he has committed blasphemy and must now praise eros to make amends. Interesting enough, the great speech also contains the hints of Plato and reincarnation (if anyone is interested in that little tidbit).

Was Socrates gay? Maybe we get an idea of that from a critic of Socrates named Aristophanes. Aristophanes in The Clouds made Socrates to be everything except sane. Strepsiades for instance found Socrates at the academy suspended in a basket in the middle of the grounds (along a length of rope) looking directly into the sun. When Strepsiades asked him what he was doing, Socrates replied he was "treading the air and contemplating the sun." In another part, Aristophanes makes Socrates out to be boy hungry (quite the opposite of what he really is) and enjoyed a boy's "dewy, downy, peach fuzz." So maybe we think Socrates was flaming gay from his critics who sought to smear him in the first place. Although the social norms were much different, Socrates, as far as The Phaedrus is concerned, is not interested in that kind of thing more than his own intellectual accomplishment. Also, I think many people may draw the wrong conclusions from the Apologia and Crito where Socrates must answer for corrupting the youth of Athens.

His life style makes me wonder if homosexual relations were seen as normal, how much more intellectualism would play into American culture.

Drinking doesn't seem to help out people too much...