A social gadfly - that was the unofficial name of Socrates in Athenian circles. Socrates, indeed, was a gadfly to his peers: he stung with his revealing and unbiased speeches. Even as a young boy the philosopher became considered as the wisest of men. Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi, herself proclaimed Socrates the profoundest philosopher that had ever lived, only to hear his famous words "I know that I know nothing" though (Miles, 2003, p. 165) (Scott, 2002, Does Socrates Have a Method, p. 122). Not believing the oracle, Socrates began to ask other Athenian sages about their lore. His sobriquet, gadfly, that is manifested is his Apology, truly conveys the philosopher's deep understanding of the moral foundations of Ancient Greece. Socrates masterfully exposed the hypocrisy of his counterparts. Pretending to be an ignoramus, he used to ask tricky questions, with the statement of questions cornering his opponents into desirable for Socrates concessions. Socrates thus invented the best, and perhaps the hardest means of self-development - maieutics, which was based on moving the counterpart towards verity, that is revealed by himself, by answering complicated questions analyzing particular examples (Plato, Benardete, 1986, pp. 103-104).
Socrates himself used to compare himself with a gadfly, inducing slumberous peers to vigil, awakening thoughts (Leibowitz, 2010, p. 146). Disguised as a fool, Socrates bit an allegedly experienced individual, and exposed contradictions in beliefs, conceptions and reflections in his counterpart's mind, which would later be described as Socratic irony (Leibowitz, 2010, p. 146). The purpose of this method was to push an inexperienced mind toward realization of ambiguity and unsteadiness of his visions. Clearing the philosophical path off confused and ignorant thoughts, Socrates, along with his apprentice, would start establishing the true knowledge, tested on misconceptions, and based on the foundation of theoretical justification and evidence. Moving apprentices from the habitually unclear and only seemingly understandable, from an opinion towards scientific knowledge, towards convictions, equipped Socrates' followers with the method of research, logical assumptions, and proofs (Scott, 2002, Does Socrates Have a Method, p. 250). The teacher, therefore, encourages the ability of the youth to reason, to discover, and allows them to enter the path of intellectual freedom and creativity (Marinoff, The Structure and Function of a Socratic Dialogue). As a method of study, Socratic dialogue was named heuristic. The developing power of Socrates' method lies in its ability to engage the youth in a dialogue with others and with themselves as the highest form of reasoning. Socrates' philosophy encourages to oppose each thesis with antithesis, and regard the newly established contradiction in order to resolve it not simply as polarity selection, but rather as the unity of contrasts. Furthermore, a great advantage of Socratic dialogue lies in the fact that it makes the learner concretize abstract images and develop them to the level of notions - the understandings of the essence of things, phenomena, processes, and revealing their explanatory principle up to the level of knowledge dealing with universal laws of life (Marinoff, The Structure and Function of a Socratic Dialogue).
During his life, Socrates gathered many followers among the youth, that were struggling against prejudices penetrating society. Socrates believed that the spirit is immortal and eternal, and our souls continue to exist in another world post mortem. He believed in one god, and tried to avoid superstitious heathenism. The wise man was considered strange by many. He did not work as others, walked all his life barefoot. Some witnessed moments when the philosopher was absorbed by trance. At the same time, it is clear that it was easier for Socrates to be an outsider, a social gadfly. If people knew what was good, they would behave accordingly - that is Socrates' philosophy. He was quite aware of the fact that a person would never be able to taste the true happiness in this world, which appeared somewhat a factor contributing to his voluntary execution. Though old, he still could have the possibility to escape execution, but he preferred death.
The reason for his voluntary execution lies in Socrates' belief that the unexamined life is not worth living (Johnson, 2011, p. 74). Thales' response to the question regarding the essence of life led Greek thinkers to the examination of the surrounding world. As a reaction to Socrates' statement, there began to develop the sciences of physics, mathematics, logics, and zoology, each giving the answer to the question "what is life?". Socrates' statement provoked a new stage of research. Socrates himself, who originally was fascinated by the ideas of the Ionian School, later understood that neither scholars nor sophists were able to explain the inwardness of the human ego. The philosopher thus admitted the importance of searching throughout the fields of ethics, and became the inspirer of new approaches to politics and education (Johnson, 2011, p. 74). With Socrates' philosophical thought ruining the established patterns of thinking, Greek philosophers faced an unexpected problem: how to combine natural sciences and humanitarian values in one framework of the existing world. The example of Socrates' life and death reminds people of the significance of the human mind, as well as the importance of freedom to use this mind.
As seen in Apology, Socrates became convinced that a usual Athenian had a diametrically opposed scale of values. An Athenian praised justice because it was the means to gain good reputation (Johnson, 2011, p. 70). In turn, reputation was the means to success in money matters and politics. Justice, therefore, encouraged the pursuit of goals, such as money, beauty, power, worship, that actually proved external in comparison with the true meaning of happiness and reputation (Johnson, 2011, p. 70). Socrates discovered that the reason of this fundamental mistake in the choice of values lies in ignorance - the lack of knowledge regarding to the true nature of the soul and the true virtue acquired by a person seeking his apotheosis. Thus, Socrates was convinced that virtue was knowledge, and all the virtues was one virtue. Everyone knowing the meaning of good in the sense bolstered by Socrates, that is, knowledge that would imply the ability to estimate a thing rather than simply remember its ready-made assessment, would always choose good. Since virtue is the state of the inward ego, and only the human ego can be inherited with good existing within his soul by nature, people's opinion that a person can harmed by depriving him of coziness and shelter is misleading. The only true harm that can befall a person is the harm of choosing the wrong way, which will eventually corrupt the person's spirit. Consequently, as stated by Socrates, if a person found himself in the state of choosing between experiencing the unfair treatment or acting unfairly himself, it would be better to experience the unfairness towards himself.
There was a tradition in Athens for execution to be carried out by the convict: Socrates had to drink poison (The Suicide of Socrates, 399 BC, 2003). On the execution day, he talked to his friends, but chased his wife away to avoid showing feelings. The Athenian sage then went aloft, leaving his philosophy to successors. Up to this day, only his words "I know that I know nothing" make clear that the true knowledge comes solely after death. Socrates believed that the hope for the Athenians was to eliminate the detrimental effect of the ignorance permeating the Athenian authority, and the events that befell Athens at the time of Socrates' life only supported his visions.
References
Johnson, D. M. (2011). Socrates and Athens (pp. 70, 74). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leibowitz, D. (2010). The Ironic Defense of Socrates: Plato's Apology (p. 146). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marinoff, L. The Structure and Function of a Socratic Dialogue. Retrieved January 25, 2016, from https://sites.google.com/site/entelequiafilosofiapratica/aconselhamento- filosofico-1/the-structure-and-function-of-a-socratic-dialogue-by-lou-marinoff
Miles, M. (2003). Inroads: Paths in Ancient and Modern Western Philosophy (p. 165). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Plato, Benardete, S. (1986). Plato's Theaetetus: Part I of The Being of the Beautiful (pp. 103- 104). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Scott, G. A. (2002). Does Socrates Have a Method?: Rethinking the Elenchus in Plato's Dialogues and Beyond (pp. 122, 250). University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
The Suicide of Socrates, 399 BC. (2003). Retrieved January 25, 2016, from http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/socrates.htm
