Socrates and Greek Government

• Greek government led to our democracy-- took same ideas
• Socrates was a young man who worked as stonemason
• fought heroically in Peloponnesian war
• working and battle field experience shaped the way he viewed the world-- your life experiences and what you do shape you and your beliefs
• met with young students outside the agora and used method of teaching where he asked their beliefs and branched his questions based on their answers, made them think-- led to scientific method
• lived in Athens, great city that attracted knowledge of astronomy, medicine, meteorology, literature, philosophy, all things scientific 
• the original teachings were only about Greek Gods so Socrates made people think/question with his method of teaching- Greek government did not like that 
• Socrates was charged with corruption of Athen's youth-- making them think instead of just believing what has been taught for so long 
• Impiety- not believing in the God of the state 
• In his defense he said that it was his job to be a gadfly (annoying/ get you going) for Athens because they are lazy and do not want to expand their knowledge or ask questions about things 
• jury of 500 male citizens 279 said he was guilty 221 did not 
• death penalty of drinking poison hemlock 
• he had an opportunity to escape on the day he was supposed to die but refused because he respected and believed in the Greek government, even if he was going to die for such a silly reason 
• proved that Socrates was loyal to the Athenian democracy

Socrates death proved that people do not like change and do not want to be questioned on something they thought for sure was right. They do not like change because it could make them look like they do not know anything. Socrates made people think, which is where all of our ideas come from and how we get answers to things. If we did not think about anything, we would not know anything knew.