The Real Reason Socrates Was Executed
It Was Not Impiety. It Was Not Corrupting The Youth. It Was Something Far More Dangerous To Those In Power
Many people do not truly understand philosophy. They simply believe they understand it. If a person was asked to name a famous philosopher they would likely say one of these names: Plato, Aristotle, Socrates. These men were all philosophers but they all came from the same time period, the same city, the same society.
Socrates is the most misrepresented thinker in Western history. Not because his ideas are obscure but because his ideas are dangerous. What modern institutions teach as the Socratic method and what Socrates actually did are two entirely different things. One is a pedagogical tool. The other dismantled the legitimating foundations of an entire ruling class until the ruling class ran out of patience.
But first, who was Socrates? Where did he come from? What qualifies him as one of the greatest philosophers in history? Socrates was not a man from extravagant beginnings or an aristocratic line. His parents were common citizens in Athens, his father a stonemason, his mother a midwife. He himself grew up and fought as a soldier in his early life. Hardly the ideal or even imagined image of one of the most prominent philosophers in history. This man had no technical training in philosophy, no formal education. He was simply a common man. What makes him so important?
If you were to believe modern western teaching methods inspired by him, you would believe he inspired critical thinking through a series of questioning. While that is partially true, institutions conveniently omit the most important and dangerous part of Socrates. This is why Socrates is so important. He had a methodology of questioning powerful credentialed elite Athenians that exposed their own ignorance and hypocrisy so thoroughly he was eventually exiled for it.
