Thinkers Throughout History

Imagine you are a young student in ancient Athens, sitting on a dusty hillside, listening to a man named SOCRATES ask questions that no one can easily answer. Socrates did not write books or run a school — instead, he walked through the marketplace challenging people to examine their own beliefs. His method, called the SOCRATIC method, is still used in law schools and debate classes today. He believed that the unexamined life was not worth living, which made powerful people very uncomfortable. In 399 BCE, the city of Athens put Socrates on TRIAL for corrupting the youth and questioning the gods — and he was sentenced to drink poison rather than flee or apologize. His student PLATO wrote down his ideas, and because of that, Socrates became one of the most influential thinkers the world has ever known.