Socrates and Individualism

Paper Summary:

This paper is an examination of ancient Athens and argues that individualism, similar to the way it is understood today, was present and prevalent in that society. It also argues, through a detailed comparison of sources that include Xenophon and Plato, that Socrates was a representative of that trend, and, through the clash between the philosopher and the defeated and weakened Athenian democracy, that he was perhaps individualism's greatest martyr.
Contents:
Introduction
Individualism in Athens
Socrates as Individualist
The Clash of Socrates and Athens
Bibliography

From the Paper:

"In 399 BCE Socrates and a small band of his friends gathered in a prison cell to discuss philosophy for the final time. One month previous, an Athenian court had charged Socrates with three crimes: failure to acknowledge the city's gods; the creation of new ones; and corruption of the youth. A majority of the five-hundred man jury had found him guilty on all counts, and he was sentenced to death. Now, as sunset approached, it was time to carry out that sentence. When the jailer entered the cell carrying the cup of hemlock that would quench the philosopher's life, most of his comrades could not help but weep for the loss of such a friend. Socrates, however, upbraided them for their histrionics and accepted his cup. He cheerfully drank his death. Such was the end of Socrates who, as his greatest student Plato writes, "was of all those we have known the best, and also the wisest and most upright." "

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