13 min • 3 lectures
This three-lecture course examines the life and ideas of Socrates, the Athenian philosopher who redirected inquiry from cosmology to human conduct. Lecture 1, 'The Gadfly of Athens,' opens in fifth-century BC Athens and recounts how the Oracle at Delphi named Socrates the wisest man. He responded by questioning politicians, poets, and craftsmen to test the claim, employing the Elenchus, a method of cross-examination that exposes contradictions in stated beliefs. The lecture uses the metaphor of a gadfly stinging a sluggish horse to illustrate his civic role. Lecture 2, 'The Trial: Truth vs. The State,' presents the charges of impiety and corrupting the youth brought by Meletus and Anytus after Athens' defeat in the Peloponnesian War. It reconstructs the defense in Plato's Apology, showing why Socrates rejected exile or a fine and instead proposed state-supported meals. Lecture 3, 'The Hemlock and the Legacy,' covers his final days. In the Crito he refuses escape, arguing that unjust application of law does not cancel the citizen's obligation to the legal order. In the Phaedo he discusses the soul's immortality before drinking hemlock. The course concludes by tracing how his death elevated philosophy from local debate to the foundation of Plato's Academy and later Western thought.
