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Greek philosophy then marks with the life of Socrates a parting of the ways
in two senses: first, inasmuch as with him came the reaction from a
physical or theoretical philosophy, having its issue in a moral chaos; and
second, inasmuch as from him the two great streams of later
philosophy issued—the one a philosophy of law or universals in action,
the other a philosophy of law or universals in thought and nature
as well.
Socrates, son of Sophroniscus a sculptor and Phaenarete a midwife, was born
at Athens in or about the year 469 B.C. His parents were probably poor, for
Socrates is represented as having been too poor to pay the fees required for
instruction by the Sophists of his time. But in whatever way acquired or
assimilated, it is certain that there was little of the prevalent culture in
cultivated Athens with which Socrates had not ultimately a working
acquaintance.
Among a people distinguished generally for their handsome features and noble
proportions, Socrates was a notable exception. His face was squat and round,
his eyes protruding, his lips thick; he was clumsy and uncouth in
appearance, careless of dress, a thorough ‘Bohemian,’ as we should call him.
He was, however, gifted with an uncommon bodily vigour, was indifferent to
heat and cold, by temperament moderate in food and drink, yet capable on
occasion of drinking most people ‘under the table.’ He was of an
imperturbable humour, not to be excited either by danger or by ridicule. His
vein of sarcasm was keen and trenchant, his natural shrewdness astonishing,
all the more astonishing because crossed with a strange vein of mysticism
and a curious self-forgetfulness.
A History of Greek Philosophy /
SOCRATES
