If you saw him on the street you’d probably cross to the other side. He had a donkey’s lips, and crabs’ eyes. He was averse to bathing. Often he had his “posse”: youths whose minds he stirred with anti-establishment stirrings. And yet before him, there was nothing; while after him, there’s all of Western philosophy. Not bad for someone whose life would end, before long, with some large gulps of poison.

How did Socrates do it? He himself wrote nothing, but his student Plato wrote lots -- long dialogues in which Socrates would challenge self-proclaimed “experts” -- about politics, or love, or justice -- and by asking them pointed questions would show that they actually knew nothing -- all the while humbly protesting that at least he himself knew that he knew nothing. When asked why he did this, his famous answer was that the unexamined life is simply not worth living.

With hindsi...
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