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From, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. I, The early Presocratics and the Pythagoreans, Cambridge University Press, 1962, pp. 1-25.
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Page 11
It might indeed be claimed that in Socrates the new spirit found its first genuine philosopher. To say that he was actually responsible for the change of outlook goes much too far. The teaching of the contemporary Sophists was very largely ethical and political, and in this they needed no prompting from Socrates. These were the days of Athens's growth to political maturity, to the leadership of Greece through her conduct in the Persian Wars and the subsequent foundation of the Delian League, and to the democratic form of government which gave every free citizen the right not only to elect his rulers but to vote in person on matters of public policy and even take his turn in exercising high and responsible office. To fit himself for success in the busy life of the city-state became a necessity for everyone. As the power and wealth of Athens grew, there followed her increasing arrogance in external relations, the impact of war between Greeks, the disaster of the Sicilian expedition (in contemporary eyes an inevitable retribution for hylris, and the downfall of Athens at the hands of her rival Sparta. The years of war were marked internally by the increasing corruption of Periclean democracy, a murderously cruel oligarchic revolution, and the return of a democracy from which the spirit of vengeance was by no means absent. All these events took place in Socrates's own lifetime, and created an atmosphere inimical to the prosecution of disinterested scientific research. To Aristophanes, a faithful enough mirror of the better opinion of his time, natural philosophers were a useless sort of people and a suitable butt for not always good-tempered ridicule.
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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/guthrie-history-intro.asp?pg=11
