StudyMind

Part VI — After Socrates: How a Man Who Wrote Nothing Changed the World Socrates was dead. The prison in Athens had become silent. The questions had stopped—for the moment. The philosopher who had spent his life walking through the streets of Athens, questioning politicians, poets, craftsmen and young people, had been executed by the city he challenged. But something unexpected happened after his death. Socrates became more influential than he had ever been while alive. He had written no books. He had founded no formal university. He had created no philosophical system in his own name. And yet, centuries later, philosophy would still be speaking in his voice. How could a man who left behind almost nothing written become one of the most important figures in the history of human thought? The answer begins with his students. The Strange Legacy of a Man Who Wrote Nothing There is an extraordinary fact about Socrates: We do not possess a single book written by him. In fact...