By Plato's account, Socrates was a larger-than life figure who valued wisdom and who detached from materialistic things. Interested in ethics or moral philosophy, and epistemology, Socrates is often quoted with: "The only thing I know is that I know nothing."
Life of Socrates
Socrates lived through great political upheaval in his birthplace of Athens. He was born c. 469/470 BC and died 399 BC. Much of what is known about him comes through the works of his one time pupil Plato as Socrates himself was an itinerant philosopher. He primarily taught by means of public discussions and never wrote any philosophical works of his own.
Philosophy of Socrates
Unlike the Greek philosophers before him, Socrates was less concerned with abstract metaphysical thoughts than with practical questions of how we ought to live, and what the good life for man might be. For this, he was consequently hailed as the founder of that branch of philosophy known as ethics. It was this concern with ethical matters that led him into conflict with the city elders. He was often accused of corrupting the minds of the sons of the wealthy with his revolutionary and unorthodox ideas and ways.
