1 00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:07,640 Since the dawn of civilisation, 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:11,120 the forces of nature and the whims of gods 3 00:00:11,120 --> 00:00:13,480 held sway over humanity. 4 00:00:15,800 --> 00:00:17,400 But 2,500 years ago, 5 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:21,120 humankind experienced a profound transformation. 6 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:28,000 Suddenly, there were new possibilities. 7 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:32,600 This is a time when rationality overrode superstition and belief. 8 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:36,080 This is an ethic which does not rely on the gods. 9 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:39,800 The world is now explained in terms of natural forces. 10 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:42,560 We're now responsible for our own destiny. 11 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:48,760 Upheavals across the globe 12 00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:52,520 sparked an ambitious vision of what humans could achieve, 13 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:55,960 spearheaded by three trailblazers. 14 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:00,160 Socrates, Confucius and the Buddha - 15 00:01:00,160 --> 00:01:02,400 great thinkers from the ancient world 16 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,400 whose ideas still shape our own lives. 17 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:08,800 Is wealth a good thing? 18 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:12,240 How do you create a just society? 19 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:15,480 How do I live a good life? 20 00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:20,160 By daring to think the unthinkable, 21 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:23,400 they laid the foundations of our modern world. 22 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:27,920 I've always been intrigued by the fact that these men, 23 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:30,600 who lived many thousands of miles apart, 24 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:32,400 seemed spontaneously 25 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:34,720 and within 100 years of one another, 26 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:37,280 to come up with such radical ideas. 27 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:44,000 So, what was going on? 28 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,000 I want to investigate their revolutionary ideas - 29 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:49,400 to understand what set them in motion. 30 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:51,640 This time, Socrates. 31 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:52,840 It's so thrilling, 32 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:57,120 imagining those big new ideas could possibly have been enacted there! 33 00:01:57,120 --> 00:01:59,600 He was the soldier whose bravery in battle 34 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:03,400 was matched by the inflammatory courage of his ideas. 35 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:05,920 Socrates encouraged his fellow citizens 36 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:09,160 to rationally examine every aspect of their lives. 37 00:02:10,200 --> 00:02:13,560 Does the person who possess knowledge in the big way know everything? 38 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:16,320 - You don't know? - I don't know. I give up! I give up! 39 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:18,640 I'm going to inhabit his world, 40 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:21,200 to examine how his subversive philosophy 41 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:25,160 challenged superstitious belief that had reigned for millennia... 42 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:30,280 ..and to discover how his search for truth 43 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:32,320 led to his downfall. 44 00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:54,640 In 469 BC, 45 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:59,040 Socrates was born, the son of a midwife and a stonemason, 46 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:03,480 into a city in the midst of a tumultuous transformation. 47 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:07,000 He grew up in the suburbs of Athens, 48 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:09,960 at eye level with the sacred Acropolis rock. 49 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:15,000 But young Socrates wouldn't have looked out 50 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,040 over the elegant lines of the Parthenon Temple, 51 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:20,760 that exquisite symbol of Western civilisation 52 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:23,480 that still stands proud today. 53 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:27,640 Instead, he'd have woken every morning to a horror - 54 00:03:27,640 --> 00:03:33,480 the blackened and burnt-out remains of buildings brutalised by war. 55 00:03:40,840 --> 00:03:43,800 His city bore the scars of a ferocious conflict 56 00:03:43,800 --> 00:03:47,680 with the region's superpower, Persia. 57 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,520 But, against the odds, Athens had triumphed, 58 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:53,000 just ten years before Socrates was born. 59 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:58,680 Now, it revelled in what some call "the Greek miracle" - 60 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:01,000 a golden age. 61 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,920 Burgeoning trade flooded the region with new wealth 62 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:06,200 and crucially, with new ideas. 63 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:14,000 But the key ideology that would shape young Socrates' life 64 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:16,640 belonged to Athens alone - 65 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:20,120 because here, around 508 BC, 66 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:25,480 democracy, the power of the people, was born. 67 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:27,040 Virtually overnight, 68 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:31,160 all adult male citizens found they didn't just serve the state - 69 00:04:31,160 --> 00:04:33,440 they were the state. 70 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:35,320 You cannot over-emphasise 71 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:38,040 how electrically exciting this must have been. 72 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:40,320 Ordinary men were selected randomly at lot 73 00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:42,960 to hold the very highest of offices - 74 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:45,480 the equivalent of being Head of the Foreign Office, 75 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:47,480 or Home Secretary for one day. 76 00:04:53,280 --> 00:04:56,640 Socrates wouldn't only witness a city being rebuilt, 77 00:04:56,640 --> 00:04:59,920 but the ethical hazards of a new social experiment. 78 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:05,560 As he was growing up, democracy too was finding its feet. 79 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:10,640 Ordinary Athenians now had the potential 80 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:13,280 to determine their own future, 81 00:05:13,280 --> 00:05:16,760 but their fate was still very firmly in the hands of the gods. 82 00:05:17,960 --> 00:05:21,480 Gods, demigods and spirits were believed to be everywhere, 83 00:05:21,480 --> 00:05:23,840 influencing people's everyday lives. 84 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:28,640 If I'd been looking out over Athens during Socrates' lifetime, 85 00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:31,600 then this scene would have been thick with smoke 86 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:34,720 and the smell of sacrifice would be heavy in the air, 87 00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:37,000 as Athenians frantically rushed around, 88 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,560 trying to keep their gods on side - 89 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:41,080 all 2,000 of them! 90 00:05:44,440 --> 00:05:46,160 This "pantheon of gods" 91 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:49,680 gave people a sense of their place in the universe. 92 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:51,880 But in these exciting times, 93 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:54,560 a few were daring to question religious convention. 94 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:58,600 As a teenager, Socrates sought them out 95 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,840 in one of Athens' most edgy and marginal districts - 96 00:06:01,840 --> 00:06:03,120 Keramiekos. 97 00:06:06,840 --> 00:06:10,760 For 600 years, this had been Athens' main burial ground. 98 00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:12,320 Come Socrates' day, 99 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:17,040 and it had evolved into a kind of cosmopolitan suburb of sin. 100 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:19,480 Travelling salesman plied their wares here, 101 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:20,920 along with prostitutes, 102 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:23,800 who offered what were euphemistically known as 103 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:25,600 "middle of the day marriages". 104 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:32,920 Many young Athenians didn't need to work. 105 00:06:32,920 --> 00:06:36,960 There was one slave to every two free citizens. 106 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:39,520 So, Socrates had the free time to come here 107 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:42,760 and listen in on theories carried in on the trade routes. 108 00:06:44,280 --> 00:06:46,920 He encountered thinkers from the Eastern Mediterranean, 109 00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:49,600 whose ideas had, for over a century, 110 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:53,000 confronted traditional explanations of the cosmos. 111 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:06,720 What people saw as mysterious and unfathomable, 112 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:09,480 they viewed as rationally ordered - 113 00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:13,000 and to some degree, rationally explicable. 114 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:20,840 We refer to them now as one group, the pre-Socratics, 115 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:25,120 but in reality, they were brilliant, independent thinkers. 116 00:07:26,720 --> 00:07:30,960 They asked hugely ambitious scientific questions. 117 00:07:30,960 --> 00:07:33,680 What is the cosmos made of? 118 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:37,000 What is matter, and how do we perceive it? 119 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:39,160 Their answers, in some cases, 120 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:43,440 undermined the role of the gods as rulers of the cosmos. 121 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:45,200 Their abstract theories - 122 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:49,200 obviously conceived without the help of scientific instruments - 123 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:52,560 that the universe was made of atoms and empty space, 124 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:55,880 that water was the fundamental element of the world, 125 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:59,680 and that the sun was one giant red-hot rock, 126 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:02,840 were wildly provocative. 127 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:07,400 The scale and audacity of their thinking was breathtaking. 128 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:17,800 The pre-Socratics not only struck at the core of traditional belief, 129 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:20,800 but their use of reason opened up a new way 130 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,160 to look at the entirety of human experience - 131 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:27,720 an approach eagerly taken up by the young Socrates. 132 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:33,760 Suddenly, it's not just tradition or myth or religious hierarchies 133 00:08:33,760 --> 00:08:36,440 that are telling you how to make sense of your world, 134 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:40,320 but rational debate, systematic thought. 135 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:43,320 Just like those other groundbreaking philosophers of the age - 136 00:08:43,320 --> 00:08:46,680 Confucius in China and the Buddha in what's now India - 137 00:08:46,680 --> 00:08:48,440 Socrates and his contemporaries 138 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:51,600 are daring to harness the power of the mind 139 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:53,640 to explain the world around them. 140 00:08:54,640 --> 00:08:57,280 This is a quantum shift. 141 00:08:59,800 --> 00:09:02,600 Confident, brave-new-world Athens 142 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:06,160 didn't seek to suppress this new spirit of inquiry. 143 00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:09,720 The city became a magnet for innovation - 144 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:13,680 thanks, in large part, to the man who would dominate Athenian politics 145 00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:16,320 for almost half of Socrates' life - 146 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:19,480 the visionary politician, Pericles. 147 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:22,200 He gathered thinkers and artists to advise him 148 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:24,120 and set about making democracy 149 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:26,480 the dominant ideology in the Greek world. 150 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:31,000 He glorified the streets with sumptuous statues 151 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:34,560 and fetishized democratic principles. 152 00:09:34,560 --> 00:09:39,120 Athens built warships called "Freedom" and "Freedom of Speech". 153 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:44,800 Yet, Socrates would understand all this success had its flipside. 154 00:09:44,800 --> 00:09:48,600 Democracy's high ideals would need to be interrogated. 155 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:53,600 A later source tells us that Socrates declared, 156 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:58,560 "Beautiful statues, high city walls and warships are all very well, 157 00:09:58,560 --> 00:10:02,520 "but what's the point, if those within them aren't happy?" 158 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:05,160 So, we have to imagine a young Socrates 159 00:10:05,160 --> 00:10:08,200 walking around this fabulous, febrile city, 160 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:10,440 beginning to ask those big questions 161 00:10:10,440 --> 00:10:13,280 that are still utterly relevant today. 162 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:15,920 Is wealth a good thing? 163 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:20,320 Can a democracy itself create a just society? 164 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,440 What is it makes us truly happy? 165 00:10:32,280 --> 00:10:37,640 Democracy had opened a Pandora's box of new dilemmas and contradictions. 166 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:39,280 As he reached adulthood, 167 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:41,800 Socrates would become the one to point them out - 168 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:46,400 a constant irritant, known as "the gadfly of Athens". 169 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:49,440 An infamous celebrity of his day. 170 00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:57,400 But Socrates is also an enigma, because as far as we know, 171 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:01,400 he didn't write anything down - not a single line. 172 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:03,560 He thought that writing was dangerous, 173 00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:05,560 because it imprisoned knowledge. 174 00:11:06,880 --> 00:11:08,760 It's only thanks to contemporaries - 175 00:11:08,760 --> 00:11:12,040 such as Plato, who may have coined the term "philosopher", 176 00:11:12,040 --> 00:11:14,320 perhaps with Socrates in mind - 177 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:17,080 that his thoughts and life story have been preserved. 178 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:21,480 And what a man he seems to have been. 179 00:11:21,480 --> 00:11:24,160 Ironic, courageous, brilliant, 180 00:11:24,160 --> 00:11:26,080 wildly charismatic 181 00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:28,200 and utterly infuriating. 182 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,360 Plato's compelling accounts of his life, his ideas 183 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:35,680 and his dramatic death are a jewel in the canon of Western thought. 184 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,280 When we think of the ancient Greek philosophers, 185 00:11:51,280 --> 00:11:53,600 we often visualise them as they've been portrayed 186 00:11:53,600 --> 00:11:55,920 in Renaissance works of art - 187 00:11:55,920 --> 00:11:58,920 lofty grey beards, draped in elegant robes, 188 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:01,600 hanging around classical columns. 189 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:03,280 We don't perhaps imagine them 190 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:06,800 involved in the dirty and bloody business of war. 191 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:16,920 Athens' appetite for territorial expansion seems to been sharpened 192 00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:19,680 by the collective will of democratic voters. 193 00:12:21,240 --> 00:12:26,480 Socrates, like all male Athenian citizens, was expected to fight. 194 00:12:28,160 --> 00:12:31,920 He was in his late 30s when he was sent here, to Potidaea, 195 00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:35,200 to help take control of this strategic city in Northern Greece. 196 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:38,720 It's from this time of war 197 00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:42,320 we get sharper textual details of Socrates' life. 198 00:12:42,320 --> 00:12:45,280 The man himself starts to come into focus. 199 00:12:45,280 --> 00:12:50,160 His vision, his physical courage, his eccentricities - 200 00:12:50,160 --> 00:12:53,760 and a man with something momentous on his mind. 201 00:12:57,200 --> 00:12:59,320 The fighting was fierce - 202 00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:02,960 and for three years, the town was besieged. 203 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:06,480 In desperation, locals turned to cannibalism. 204 00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:11,760 Yet, in amongst all these horrors and the pity of war, 205 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:14,920 somehow Socrates found stillness. 206 00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:26,080 We're told he became absorbed by complex, private thoughts. 207 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:29,560 In the depths of winter, 208 00:13:29,560 --> 00:13:33,200 wearing just a threadbare cloak and with bare feet, 209 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:37,480 he stood - for 24 hours at a stretch. 210 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:39,920 Stock-still, 211 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:42,120 lost in his own mind. 212 00:13:44,840 --> 00:13:46,960 Unlike the pre-Socratic thinkers, 213 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:50,160 Socrates came to believe that understanding the cosmos 214 00:13:50,160 --> 00:13:54,280 was an esoteric diversion from something far more important. 215 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,840 Studying the secrets of the stars was all very well, 216 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:02,320 but human affairs had far greater urgency. 217 00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:10,520 So, Socrates did something truly ground-breaking. 218 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:14,880 He turned rational thought inward, 219 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:17,840 to solve the mortal dilemmas we all face. 220 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:22,520 He threw all his energies 221 00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:26,440 into resolving the fundamental questions of human existence. 222 00:14:26,440 --> 00:14:28,720 What kind of a life should we lead? 223 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:30,800 What sort of people do we want to be? 224 00:14:31,840 --> 00:14:34,560 He's the first individual in the West 225 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:37,640 to put ethics at the very heart of his philosophy. 226 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:50,120 Socrates' starting point was simple. 227 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:53,840 Everyone yearns for a full and flourishing life, 228 00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:56,360 but it wasn't to be found in the transitory pleasures 229 00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:58,760 and distractions of the material world. 230 00:15:00,280 --> 00:15:04,160 Socrates believed we can only realise our human potential 231 00:15:04,160 --> 00:15:06,320 when we nurture the most precious, 232 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:10,640 the most permanent part of our beings - our souls. 233 00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:13,520 When we do right, we protect our soul. 234 00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:16,000 When we do wrong, we harm it. 235 00:15:18,400 --> 00:15:23,480 Knowing right from wrong was fundamental to every aspect of life. 236 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:26,600 And in fifth century Athens, the issue was acute. 237 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:32,920 As many as 4,000 legal cases were heard each year. 238 00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:35,960 Democracy had revolutionised the law courts. 239 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:39,120 Now, any male citizen, 240 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:41,920 from aristocrats right down to fishmongers, 241 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:43,760 could be a judge for the day. 242 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:49,360 We're told Socrates found such amateur governance troubling. 243 00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:52,360 If those sitting in judgment weren't qualified to understand 244 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:54,520 the difference between right and wrong, 245 00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:57,400 then they could convict an innocent person. 246 00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:00,760 They'd be punishing someone who didn't deserve to be hurt. 247 00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:08,560 But in Socrates' view, the innocent person would only suffer physically. 248 00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:12,600 It's the jurors who would be harming themselves much more. 249 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:14,920 By unknowingly doing wrong, 250 00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:20,400 they would inflict terrible, lasting damage to their own souls. 251 00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:25,240 In order to protect Athenians, Socrates needed to teach them. 252 00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:28,280 "The only evil is ignorance", he said. 253 00:16:29,320 --> 00:16:31,480 But Socrates faced a problem. 254 00:16:31,480 --> 00:16:34,520 The Greeks did have an ethical framework of sorts, 255 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:37,080 but it wasn't either clear or consistent. 256 00:16:40,960 --> 00:16:45,000 The destiny of all Greeks was in the hands of the gods. 257 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:46,520 They were venerated, 258 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:50,560 even though their personal lives were pretty short on moral guidance. 259 00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:53,480 Capricious and vengeful, 260 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:56,480 they fought with each other, they slept with one another's wives, 261 00:16:56,480 --> 00:16:58,760 they abducted mortals. 262 00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:00,120 And appropriately, 263 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,840 the gods didn't seem that interested in human morality, either. 264 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:08,720 Living a good life didn't guarantee favour with the gods. 265 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:10,360 Respecting their power 266 00:17:10,360 --> 00:17:14,200 and offering the most expensive and bloodiest sacrifice 267 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:15,840 was a much safer bet. 268 00:17:18,840 --> 00:17:22,280 Greeks did, however, believe there were five virtues - 269 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:27,200 justice, temperance, courage, piety and wisdom. 270 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:32,120 But in practice, these virtues were slippery, shifting ideals. 271 00:17:32,120 --> 00:17:35,920 What was considered just or pious for an aristocratic man 272 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:38,920 wasn't necessarily the same for a slave woman. 273 00:17:40,040 --> 00:17:43,240 In Socrates' experience, traditional moral thinking - 274 00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:47,040 the kind taught by elders and priests and epic poets - 275 00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:49,720 just didn't stand up to scrutiny. 276 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:54,840 His philosophy became a search for more robust, universal definitions. 277 00:17:57,560 --> 00:18:01,480 Socrates thought that all the virtues were interlinked. 278 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:03,600 They couldn't be separated. 279 00:18:03,600 --> 00:18:06,040 He thought of them as one thing - 280 00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:09,880 something he called "knowledge of the human good". 281 00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:18,320 For him, virtue is knowledge - knowledge of the human good. 282 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,640 He says that this knowledge of the human good 283 00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:24,480 is going to, in some sense, save your life. 284 00:18:24,480 --> 00:18:26,840 This is really strong language. 285 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:28,640 But is that an abstract idea, 286 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:32,040 or is there something that can play out in people's day to day lives? 287 00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:34,560 Oh, no, absolutely. Knowledge of the human good 288 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:38,560 is what enables us to make the right practical decisions 289 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:40,320 in our daily lives. 290 00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:44,360 But it's going to look different in different contexts. 291 00:18:44,360 --> 00:18:46,560 For instance, if you're on a battlefield, 292 00:18:46,560 --> 00:18:48,560 it will manifest itself as courage. 293 00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:52,840 If you're sacrificing in a temple, it will look like piety, 294 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:55,360 And it's through those decisions and actions 295 00:18:55,360 --> 00:18:58,400 that we are enabled to take care of our souls - 296 00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:00,840 our most precious possession, 297 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:03,880 on which all our happiness depends. 298 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:06,400 But that means that people have real agency, 299 00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:08,200 because it seems to me that he's saying 300 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:10,600 it's not down to the Gods to make the world a better place, 301 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:12,520 - it's down to us. - Absolutely. 302 00:19:12,520 --> 00:19:15,840 Socrates is saying, you don't have to depend on the whims 303 00:19:15,840 --> 00:19:17,640 and the caprices of the gods. 304 00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:22,160 It's really about individual empowerment and responsibility. 305 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:25,200 And furthermore, whereas he inherited a tradition which said 306 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,960 there was one kind of virtue for a man, another for a woman, 307 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:32,400 one for, you know, a well-born person, another for a slave, 308 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:35,800 he's saying, no - it's about knowledge of the human good, 309 00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:40,200 in a universal sense. It's available to everybody. 310 00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:41,920 Cicero later says of him, 311 00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:46,320 he brings philosophy down from the heavens and into people's homes 312 00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:48,600 and into people's individual homes. 313 00:19:48,600 --> 00:19:53,200 This really is a very radical moment in Western thought. 314 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:56,400 Exciting and empowering, but also dangerous. 315 00:19:56,400 --> 00:20:00,560 Indeed, because even though Socrates himself 316 00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:04,640 was personally very religious, as far as we know, very pious, 317 00:20:04,640 --> 00:20:07,080 this is socially threatening. 318 00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:10,200 It's threatening traditional religion and of course, 319 00:20:10,200 --> 00:20:13,560 these messages are disturbing to a lot of people. 320 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:22,200 Socrates didn't deny the existence of the gods, but his emphasis 321 00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:25,360 on the capacity of humans to shape their own destiny 322 00:20:25,360 --> 00:20:28,520 could be seen as challenging their traditional roles. 323 00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:35,120 Fortunately, the sacrificial fires to the Gods, 324 00:20:35,120 --> 00:20:36,760 which had burnt for centuries, 325 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:40,840 were now lit in a city that also prized freedom of expression. 326 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:46,080 Initially, Socrates' unorthodox ideas were tolerated. 327 00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:49,840 But then, in 431 BC, 328 00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:51,960 the good times looked set to end. 329 00:20:56,640 --> 00:21:00,360 The violence of Potidaea escalated into all-out conflict. 330 00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:05,720 The pitiless Peloponnesian war between Athens and its nemesis - 331 00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:07,720 the city-state of Sparta. 332 00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:11,760 Here at the National Archaeological Museum, 333 00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:15,680 funerary urns depict the heartbreaking suffering and loss 334 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:17,480 experienced by the Athenians. 335 00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:25,880 With Spartan hordes ravaging the countryside around Athens, 336 00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:29,280 Pericles ordered every citizen from the surrounding area 337 00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:31,160 to come inside the city walls. 338 00:21:32,360 --> 00:21:35,000 It was a fatal strategy. 339 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,400 A new kind of terror was unleashed from within. 340 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:45,200 Athens became one giant refugee camp. 341 00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:47,440 With the population hemmed in together, 342 00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:50,960 a deadly disease spread like wildfire. 343 00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:53,480 The symptoms were ghastly - 344 00:21:53,480 --> 00:21:56,720 sweats, fevers, a suppurating rash 345 00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:58,400 and a racking cough. 346 00:21:59,480 --> 00:22:01,440 At a conservative estimate, 347 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:05,960 at least one third of the population was wiped out. 348 00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:13,600 Angry and frustrated Athenians turned on their poster boy 349 00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:15,720 and removed Pericles from office. 350 00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:21,280 Eventually he died, it's believed, of the plague himself. 351 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:24,720 A thriving Athens had been robust enough 352 00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:28,000 to deal with the searching questions of Socrates. 353 00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,280 Now, with confidence ebbing away, 354 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:31,960 tolerance was threatened. 355 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:37,120 Yet, energised by the same sense of crisis and danger 356 00:22:37,120 --> 00:22:41,040 which motivated the philosophies of Confucius and the Buddha, 357 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:43,240 Socrates seems to have flourished. 358 00:22:46,120 --> 00:22:47,960 By now in his 40s 359 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:51,760 and surrounded by war, death and disease, 360 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:54,040 his search took on a new intensity. 361 00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:58,040 How do we decide what is good? 362 00:23:01,360 --> 00:23:03,080 Is wealth a good thing? 363 00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:08,240 What makes us truly happy? 364 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:14,960 In Athens, Socrates wasn't the only one discussing big ideas 365 00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:16,760 with its embattled citizens. 366 00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:22,520 The sophists were cock-sure, showy educators - 367 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:25,160 masters in the art of persuasive argument. 368 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:28,880 They acted as speechmakers in legal trials, 369 00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:31,920 entertaining huge crowds in stadiums. 370 00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:35,840 Socrates was sceptical, to say the least. 371 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:39,120 Like the sophists, he challenged orthodox thought, 372 00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:40,960 but he also passionately believed 373 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,560 that philosophy should have a higher purpose. 374 00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:47,920 Clever ideas and persuasive arguments just weren't enough. 375 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:55,360 To the sophists, smart words were currency. 376 00:23:55,360 --> 00:23:59,000 They sold their services to the highest bidder. 377 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:02,240 But Socrates refused to be paid, 378 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:04,360 preferring handouts from friends. 379 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:09,080 That's not to say he didn't enjoy worldly pleasures. 380 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:12,800 He drank and made love, 381 00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:14,640 but barefoot and unwashed, 382 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,440 he stood out in materially minded Athens. 383 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:23,280 We're told that he marched past shop stalls in his shabby robes, saying, 384 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:25,320 "How many things I don't need!" 385 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:29,360 He saw wealth as impermanent - 386 00:24:29,360 --> 00:24:33,200 a distraction from the search for absolute values. 387 00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:36,480 Socrates believed you couldn't buy knowledge - 388 00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:40,080 and wisdom didn't come from listening to long speeches. 389 00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:42,640 It could only come through something else - 390 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:44,560 dialogue. 391 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:49,560 - So, Bethany, I understand you're here to do a documentary about Socrates. - Yes. 392 00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:51,560 Why are you making this documentary? 393 00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:54,920 'His Socratic method worked something like this - 394 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:57,400 'Socrates would engage someone in the street...' 395 00:24:57,400 --> 00:24:59,680 I can learn something more about Socrates 396 00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:02,920 and I can share that knowledge with the people who are watching it. 397 00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:05,240 These are big words - "knowledge" and "truth". 398 00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:07,480 Shall we take one of them? What would it mean...? 399 00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:09,480 'He'd ask them an ethical question.' 400 00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:13,200 So what is this thing - knowledge - that you want to impart? 401 00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:14,560 In my book, 402 00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:19,320 knowledge is love of what it is to be human. 403 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:22,760 'The person would attempt to define the concept, 404 00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:26,000 'but Socrates would find inconsistencies in their answers.' 405 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:28,280 - So, knowledge is love? - Yeah. - OK. 406 00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:33,800 So, if you wanted to have an operation for an appendicitis, 407 00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:37,120 would you go to a woman who was full of love, 408 00:25:37,120 --> 00:25:39,840 - but knew nothing about surgery? - No! 409 00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:43,960 OK, So I would say that the definition of "knowledge as love" 410 00:25:43,960 --> 00:25:45,720 is not good enough. 411 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:48,560 'They would be forced to withdraw their definition 412 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:51,200 'and to reformulate and refine their ideas.' 413 00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:53,160 So, let's try it again. 414 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:56,720 Is there one kind of knowledge, or many kinds of knowledge? 415 00:25:57,920 --> 00:25:59,840 Knowledge is one thing... 416 00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,760 Take your time. I don't know the answers to this. 417 00:26:02,760 --> 00:26:05,320 Maybe knowledge is one thing, 418 00:26:05,320 --> 00:26:07,680 but knowing is many things. 419 00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:09,360 'This process would spiral 420 00:26:09,360 --> 00:26:12,560 'into a dizzying round of question and answer.' 421 00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:14,760 ..To know how the stars move 422 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:18,200 and to know how the liver operates is the same thing? 423 00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:21,880 No, they're not the same thing. 424 00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:25,360 Does the person who possesses knowledge in the big way know everything? 425 00:26:25,360 --> 00:26:28,680 Between those two, who is probably the best stone maker? 426 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:32,480 Er... The one who... 427 00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:36,400 I don't know! I give up, I give up! 428 00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,240 'Socrates likens his role to that of a midwife, 429 00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:42,760 'who helps to nurture and deliver the thoughts of others. 430 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,280 'But it was never an easy birth.' 431 00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:47,440 I have to say that the one thing you've proved to me 432 00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:48,880 is that I know nothing. 433 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:51,320 Ah, no, no. That's me! LAUGHTER 434 00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:55,280 I am the expert at making other people know things, but I'm no good - 435 00:26:55,280 --> 00:27:00,360 I know nothing and that is the only knowledge I claim for myself. 436 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:05,640 That Socratic method is fascinating and stimulating, 437 00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,720 but it is also infuriating. 438 00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:11,800 Yes, because it's in an oral context, the way we do it, 439 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:14,040 and Socrates famously believed 440 00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:17,000 in the supremacy of the oral over the written 441 00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:20,000 and that also stirs up the emotions. 442 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:23,840 First of all, in his pretence of being the fool. 443 00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:25,960 - The ignorant man. - Of knowing nothing, yeah. 444 00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,280 Yes, and because that is his tool, 445 00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:31,640 that he turns, in fact, against his friends - 446 00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,280 or opponents, as you may take it - 447 00:27:34,280 --> 00:27:38,520 and makes them admit to things that they don't want to admit to, 448 00:27:38,520 --> 00:27:41,520 by playing essentially the fool, saying, 449 00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:43,120 "I know nothing, I know nothing. 450 00:27:43,120 --> 00:27:45,960 "I can only ask you to tell me, because I know nothing." 451 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:48,640 So, he laid an emphasis on the definitions, 452 00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:52,880 then on what he called "dieresis" - division - 453 00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,800 of breaking down a problem into little parts, 454 00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:58,400 analysing parts, analysing it. 455 00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:01,000 And then, attacking each one separately 456 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:04,200 and then trying, inductively, to group them back together 457 00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:06,200 into a more general concept. 458 00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:10,400 So, Socrates uses that to make people become aware 459 00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:14,480 that things they consider simple and elementary and basic 460 00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:17,760 and that they know - they in fact don't know. 461 00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:19,560 And what about the modern world? 462 00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:23,000 Do you think we could have the modern world 463 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,360 without Socratic debate, 464 00:28:25,360 --> 00:28:27,960 without questioning what it is to be human 465 00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:30,840 and what it is to be human in the world around us? 466 00:28:30,840 --> 00:28:35,080 Well, I think that the best way to accept, 467 00:28:35,080 --> 00:28:37,920 to find Socrates' place in it 468 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:42,440 is to see that the opposite of the Socratic method, essentially, 469 00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:45,840 is fanaticism and dogmatism. 470 00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:49,600 And in that sense, the modern world very much needs 471 00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:52,560 an antidote to those things, at every level. 472 00:28:57,440 --> 00:29:00,040 The Socratic method was cathartic. 473 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,440 It got difficult issues out into the open 474 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,400 and defined concepts with much greater precision. 475 00:29:08,400 --> 00:29:11,760 Socrates' tough questioning, with his trademark irony, 476 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:13,720 was conducted in public, 477 00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:16,440 causing a stir wherever he went. 478 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:22,680 He was inviting everyone to seek knowledge of the human good, 479 00:29:22,680 --> 00:29:25,680 to identify fundamental truths. 480 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:28,360 But people could only do this for themselves 481 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:30,920 by constantly interrogating their actions 482 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:33,200 and most deeply held beliefs. 483 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:37,520 "The unexamined life," Socrates said, "is not worth living." 484 00:29:42,840 --> 00:29:45,120 But there was a problem. 485 00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:49,360 Socrates' teaching found particular favour with the young. 486 00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,080 With no end in sight to war with Sparta, 487 00:29:52,080 --> 00:29:56,480 these human resources were vital to Athens' future. 488 00:29:56,480 --> 00:30:00,200 Laws attempted to protect the youth from malign influence. 489 00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:05,280 Encouraging them to think for themselves was fraught with danger. 490 00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:08,760 Yet Socrates sought them out, 491 00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:11,640 close to the most public place in the city - 492 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:13,000 the Agora. 493 00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:16,040 Across the ancient world, 494 00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:18,960 commerce was increasingly a driver for change - 495 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:22,400 and that was felt particularly keenly here in Athens. 496 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:25,200 The Agora was a buzzing market, 497 00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:28,560 a place where people came to exchange goods and gossip. 498 00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:35,640 Socrates loved sharing his ideas here. 499 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,080 It's from Agora we get the word "Agoraphobia" - 500 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:40,680 a fear of open spaces. 501 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:46,480 There was anxiety back then, too, as under-18s were barred. 502 00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:51,760 Now, archaeology helps to point to how Socrates met young Athenians 503 00:30:51,760 --> 00:30:56,040 just outside the Agora's boundary, in a private dwelling. 504 00:30:56,040 --> 00:30:58,520 So, we're right on the edge of the Agora space, 505 00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:02,360 and we're in-between the public space and the private space behind us here. 506 00:31:02,360 --> 00:31:04,760 And this wall behind us right here 507 00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:06,840 is one of those private establishments. 508 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,000 And we have a later source that mentions 509 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:12,040 Socrates visiting the house of a friend of his 510 00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:14,560 and we have this figure, Simon the Cobbler 511 00:31:14,560 --> 00:31:16,840 and he's hosting young men. 512 00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:18,600 So, we have the literary source, 513 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:22,080 but what's nice is that during the excavations right here, 514 00:31:22,080 --> 00:31:24,600 they found hobnails, they found bone eyelets 515 00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:26,360 and then, they also found a cup 516 00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:29,360 and this is the amazing bit of evidence really, 517 00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:32,760 because this cup has the name "Simon" scratched on it. 518 00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:35,480 And this is a replica right here of the cup 519 00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:39,520 and you can see that it does have "Simonos" scratched on it. 520 00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:41,520 Yeah, I just... It's so thrilling being here, 521 00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:43,520 imagining those big, new ideas 522 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:46,720 could possibly have been enacted there 2,500 years ago. 523 00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:49,320 We can say that Socrates was walking around this space 524 00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:51,920 and he was probably hanging out right here, 525 00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:55,480 in order to discuss things, things that might otherwise be... 526 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:57,560 Something that might get him in trouble, 527 00:31:57,560 --> 00:31:59,920 I mean, it's a dangerous situation that, potentially. 528 00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:02,000 So, you've got this magnetic personality, 529 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:04,640 having these rumbustious conversations with young men 530 00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:07,720 - and encouraging them to think for themselves. - That's exactly right. 531 00:32:07,720 --> 00:32:10,480 This is the place where we're supposed to have freedom of thought 532 00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:15,160 and freedom of expression and so on, in this democratic idea, 533 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:18,760 but this is a place where you have to respect the gods 534 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:20,680 and you have to respect your elders 535 00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:22,880 and you have to respect the laws of the city. 536 00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:25,640 He's questioning the gods, he's questioning the laws, 537 00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:28,320 so he's really putting it to the test 538 00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:32,240 and forcing these young guys to see things in a different way 539 00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:34,360 and the city didn't really like that. 540 00:32:36,320 --> 00:32:39,040 Socrates was storing up trouble, 541 00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:43,480 especially as some of his devotees were confident young aristocrats - 542 00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:45,120 the city's future leaders. 543 00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:53,240 Most notable was Alcibiades. 544 00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:58,400 Well born, wealthy and an Olympic champion, 545 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:01,360 this sexually promiscuous hell raiser 546 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:05,120 entranced and scandalised Athens for decades. 547 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:10,280 Yet this playboy was friends with Socrates, 548 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,120 who was 20 years his senior. 549 00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:15,600 Socrates had actually saved Alcibiades' life 550 00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:17,400 during the battle of Potidaea. 551 00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:22,040 Plato's Symposium describes an infamous exchange 552 00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:23,680 that took place between them 553 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:26,560 during a heady, aristocratic drinking party. 554 00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:32,440 A drunken Alcibiades, we're told, crashes the discussion, 555 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:35,880 which turns to the question of beauty. 556 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,920 In Greek culture, Alcibiades' body beautiful 557 00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:43,120 would typically have been regarded as a sign of his moral beauty, too. 558 00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:46,920 But it appears Alcibiades bought into 559 00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:50,680 Socrates' alternative concept of real beauty. 560 00:33:52,400 --> 00:33:56,080 Socrates, he says, might be ugly on the outside, 561 00:33:56,080 --> 00:34:00,960 but he has an inner beauty that by far outshines any physical beauty - 562 00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:03,680 and that he, Alcibiades, loves Socrates 563 00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:05,560 because he is the wisest man 564 00:34:05,560 --> 00:34:08,000 and therefore, the most beautiful. 565 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:18,520 However, when it came to achieving inner beauty for himself, 566 00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:22,320 Alcibiades was woefully out of step. 567 00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:25,200 He thought his good looks could help him, 568 00:34:25,200 --> 00:34:29,520 but his cocky plan to seduce Socrates was rebuffed. 569 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:31,560 "You're plotting to get real beauty 570 00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:34,480 "in exchange for its appearance", Socrates said. 571 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:36,760 "That would be gold for bronze". 572 00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:46,640 For Socrates, the talents of young aristocrats were worthless 573 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:49,120 without the wisdom to use them properly. 574 00:34:50,320 --> 00:34:53,800 By debating with them, he was pushing the patience of Athens. 575 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,680 Yet Socrates didn't compromise his principles... 576 00:34:59,960 --> 00:35:04,640 ..as demonstrated in the story of the Oracle of Delphi. 577 00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:12,400 We're told that a friend of Socrates, called Chaerephon, 578 00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:15,560 a rather impetuous individual from all accounts, 579 00:35:15,560 --> 00:35:18,560 came on pilgrimage here, to this sacred site. 580 00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:25,880 Delphi had been a place of religious devotion for 2,000 years. 581 00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:31,920 Chaerephon, in time-honoured fashion, 582 00:35:31,920 --> 00:35:35,720 climbed the sacred way to ask a question of the god Apollo, 583 00:35:35,720 --> 00:35:37,480 who spoke through a priestess. 584 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:44,120 When he finally reached the Oracle, 585 00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:49,320 he asked, "Is there any man wiser than Socrates?" 586 00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:51,360 And the answer came back - 587 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:52,560 "No". 588 00:35:57,240 --> 00:35:59,960 Chaerephon took the message to Socrates, 589 00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:03,560 who in typical manner, questioned the Oracle's words. 590 00:36:05,640 --> 00:36:08,880 Even the words of Apollo - a god, for heaven's sake - 591 00:36:08,880 --> 00:36:11,280 was subject to Socrates' scrutiny. 592 00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:15,880 He set about cross-examining people who had a reputation for wisdom, 593 00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:18,440 or a particular kind of specialist knowledge. 594 00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:24,520 After questioning public officials, poets and craftsmen, 595 00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:28,680 he discovered that they all lacked the wisdom they claimed. 596 00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:36,160 Eventually, Socrates concluded that the Oracle was indeed right. 597 00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:40,960 He was the wisest of men, but only, because as he put it, 598 00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:44,160 "I don't pretend to know what I don't know." 599 00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:57,400 Socrates was wiser 600 00:36:57,400 --> 00:37:00,800 because he acknowledged the limits of his own understanding. 601 00:37:01,960 --> 00:37:04,320 By publicly exposing the false pretensions 602 00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:07,360 and ignorance of those who did claim to know the truth, 603 00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:09,920 he was bound to make enemies. 604 00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:12,120 But there was something else about Socrates 605 00:37:12,120 --> 00:37:13,880 that was even more unsettling. 606 00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:18,400 He claimed to have his own daimonion, or guiding spirit. 607 00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:22,320 A kind of hotline of communication to the supernatural world. 608 00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:36,520 This daimonion spoke to him during trance-like episodes. 609 00:37:36,520 --> 00:37:38,920 It warned him from making wrong decisions. 610 00:37:40,320 --> 00:37:43,760 On one occasion, it advised against entering public politics. 611 00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:47,760 Socrates' followers would have been in awe of this 612 00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:50,720 uniquely personal divine calling, 613 00:37:50,720 --> 00:37:52,360 but the average Athenian 614 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:56,240 would have been confused and deeply disturbed by it. 615 00:37:56,240 --> 00:37:58,720 Don't forget, this is a time and place 616 00:37:58,720 --> 00:38:03,000 where ritual, devotion and belief all take place out in public, 617 00:38:03,000 --> 00:38:05,400 as part of a shared experience. 618 00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:10,160 Not only that, but Greek folk culture imagined the world 619 00:38:10,160 --> 00:38:12,440 to be infused with spirits - 620 00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:13,960 not all of them good. 621 00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:24,040 Socrates' unorthodox, private spirituality 622 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:25,760 could easily be confused with 623 00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:28,160 a darker, more troubling kind of magic. 624 00:38:29,240 --> 00:38:31,760 Some muttered that he was a sorcerer. 625 00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:36,840 In this super-religious culture, 626 00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:39,800 the philosopher was laying himself open to scandal. 627 00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:47,000 False rumours and innuendo would culminate on a very public stage, 628 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,560 fostering the kind of misinformation 629 00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:53,200 that would ultimately spell disaster for Socrates. 630 00:39:03,800 --> 00:39:07,320 Picture Socrates, bustling up here to the theatre of Dionysus 631 00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:10,280 in spring, 423 BC. 632 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,080 He finds some snacks to munch during the show - 633 00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:15,400 chickpeas, figs, nuts - 634 00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:17,320 settling down to watch the drama. 635 00:39:19,560 --> 00:39:22,680 He's here to watch a new comedy, called Clouds, 636 00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:26,440 by the young buck of Athenian theatre, Aristophanes - 637 00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:29,840 only 22 and eager to make his mark. 638 00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:36,160 By now a big character in the city, Socrates is considered fair game - 639 00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:39,160 and he's parodied pretty mercilessly. 640 00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:41,920 He's portrayed as a ludicrous figure, 641 00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:45,520 the head of a ridiculous school called "the think shop". 642 00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:04,280 LAUGHTER 643 00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:07,680 Socrates' character was merged with other intellectuals 644 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:10,520 who were arousing popular suspicion - 645 00:40:10,520 --> 00:40:14,280 the devious sophists, who undermined society by making 646 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:17,400 "the weak argument defeat the stronger". 647 00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:20,040 And the pre-Socratics, who in some cases, 648 00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:24,320 displaced the pre-eminence of the gods with their science. 649 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:26,760 We're told that Socrates actually came to the theatre 650 00:40:26,760 --> 00:40:28,560 to watch Aristophanes' Clouds. 651 00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:32,400 What could it have felt like, to see himself portrayed in that way? 652 00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:36,360 I think he must have been amused. There is this anecdote of Socrates 653 00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:40,360 actually standing up in the seats of the theatre, 654 00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:43,520 so that those who didn't know him knew who he was 655 00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:45,080 and what he looked like, 656 00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:48,160 as his character was being ridiculed on stage. 657 00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:53,800 So I think Socrates was detached from all these standard norms of society 658 00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:58,360 and I think it's possible that he might have enjoyed that. 659 00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:01,080 On the face of it, this is all very amusing, 660 00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:03,360 but do you think that Socrates should be worried by 661 00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:06,160 the way that Aristophanes is choosing to portray him? 662 00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:08,960 In hindsight, I think he should have been worried. 663 00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:10,600 The core of democracy, 664 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:14,080 the principle democracy is that the citizens be educated. 665 00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:17,320 If you don't have educated citizens, democracy does not work. 666 00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:22,280 The theatre was a major tool for educating the Athenian citizens 667 00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:25,040 and the memory of that portrayal 668 00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:27,400 would have remained for decades to come, 669 00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:30,360 as a whole generation of Athenians would have been exposed to it. 670 00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:32,600 It's the ancient equivalent of trial by media? 671 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:35,040 It is, in fifth-century Athens, yeah. 672 00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:59,360 But the cracks appearing in Socrates' reputation 673 00:41:59,360 --> 00:42:02,920 were nothing compared to what was happening to Athens itself. 674 00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:10,480 As the war with Sparta dragged on, 675 00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:14,080 people questioned the success of the democratic experiment. 676 00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:19,960 At the heart of the uncertainty was Socrates' close friend, Alcibiades. 677 00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:22,040 He'd been chosen to lead an expedition 678 00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:24,440 against Sicily in 415 BC - 679 00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:27,200 the largest in Athens' military history. 680 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:32,440 But one night, before they set sail, 681 00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:35,160 someone stalked through Athens' streets, 682 00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:39,200 mutilating statues of the protector god, Hermes. 683 00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:43,000 The rumour spread that Alcibiades and his aristocratic friends 684 00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:47,080 were the vandals, part of a plot to bring down democracy. 685 00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:51,960 Back in Athens, rumour escalated to outrage 686 00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:57,040 and Alcibiades was ordered home to face trial on charges of sacrilege. 687 00:42:57,040 --> 00:42:59,440 But then, en route, he vanished. 688 00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:03,160 And where he reappeared shocked everyone. 689 00:43:03,160 --> 00:43:05,320 He turned up, a traitor, 690 00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:08,400 in the bosom of Athens' greatest enemy, 691 00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:09,600 Sparta. 692 00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:18,880 Alcibiades' damaging defection 693 00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:22,920 exacerbated the anxieties of a god-fearing public. 694 00:43:22,920 --> 00:43:25,000 They needed a scapegoat - 695 00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:28,120 and Socrates was tainted by association. 696 00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:32,800 But he seems unconcerned, 697 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:36,720 doggedly pursuing the knowledge of right from wrong above all else. 698 00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:45,400 So when the philosopher unexpectedly entered public life in his 60s, 699 00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:48,080 he was on a collision course with Athens. 700 00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:59,320 He became presiding officer in an emotionally charged case, 701 00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:03,480 whose drama was played out here on the hill of the Pynx. 702 00:44:03,480 --> 00:44:06,120 Six disgraced Athenian generals 703 00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:09,280 were accused of failing to collect the bodies of dead soldiers, 704 00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:10,560 lost at sea. 705 00:44:13,880 --> 00:44:17,400 The public called for the generals to be tried together, 706 00:44:17,400 --> 00:44:19,040 in breach of Athenian law. 707 00:44:20,440 --> 00:44:22,960 But Socrates refused to be swept along 708 00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:25,040 by the vengeful mood of the crowd. 709 00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:30,160 Even though threatened with indictment for treason, 710 00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:32,520 Socrates refused to budge. 711 00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:35,920 He wanted no part in this kangaroo court. 712 00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:38,600 As the sun set, there was stalemate. 713 00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:42,320 And then, the next morning, Socrates was off the case. 714 00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:43,720 Later that day, 715 00:44:43,720 --> 00:44:47,680 the generals were all tried here together at the Pnyx - 716 00:44:47,680 --> 00:44:50,440 condemned and then executed. 717 00:44:56,840 --> 00:45:00,240 To me, this case embodies one of the most important ideas 718 00:45:00,240 --> 00:45:03,320 that Socrates has been developing all his adult life, 719 00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:06,880 which is that one should never take revenge. 720 00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:10,280 And in this, he's completely turning on its head 721 00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:15,640 one of the foundational tenets of traditional Greek morality, 722 00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:19,440 which said that you should help your friends and harm your enemies. 723 00:45:19,440 --> 00:45:21,000 And Socrates says, no - 724 00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:23,840 because all you can do to another person is, 725 00:45:23,840 --> 00:45:27,080 you can take away their possessions, you can damage their body, 726 00:45:27,080 --> 00:45:30,640 you can kill them, but you can't harm their soul. 727 00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:35,360 But by doing wrong to somebody else, you are damaging your own soul 728 00:45:35,360 --> 00:45:39,600 and thereby, taking away your chance of a virtuous 729 00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:42,680 and hence also, a happy and flourishing life. 730 00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:45,520 This was a city-state that believed in justice, 731 00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:47,880 that wanted to see justice enacted, 732 00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:51,640 so in Socrates' book, what form should punishment take? 733 00:45:51,640 --> 00:45:53,440 It's a good point. 734 00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:56,200 He does believe that sometimes, punishment is appropriate, 735 00:45:56,200 --> 00:46:01,840 but you punish somebody solely in terms of trying to cure their soul 736 00:46:01,840 --> 00:46:06,520 of the damage that they have brought upon themselves by doing wrong. 737 00:46:06,520 --> 00:46:12,320 So, punishment is there to cure and purify a damaged soul. 738 00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:15,560 Even today, those still feel like quite progressive ideas. 739 00:46:15,560 --> 00:46:19,080 Absolutely, I mean we're barely catching up with these ideas. 740 00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:23,640 Even now, we still have debates. What is the purpose of punishment? 741 00:46:23,640 --> 00:46:26,960 Is it to...is it a kind of retribution, 742 00:46:26,960 --> 00:46:29,960 or is it some kind of reform? 743 00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:32,480 Now, Socrates is absolutely clear - 744 00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:35,440 the purpose of punishment is to reform. 745 00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:37,720 They are fascinating ideas, 746 00:46:37,720 --> 00:46:40,880 but they must have been very, very troubling to the Athenians, 747 00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:43,880 because it must have felt as if he was kind of unpicking 748 00:46:43,880 --> 00:46:46,480 the foundations that that kept communities together. 749 00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:49,280 Yeah. It would have looked weak to them. 750 00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:51,840 It would have looked like, "Oh, no, you're not a real man, 751 00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:55,480 "you're not standing up for yourself, what are you doing?" 752 00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:58,160 In a way, he's almost anticipating 753 00:46:58,160 --> 00:47:00,560 the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. 754 00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:03,120 You know, turn the other cheek, in a sense. 755 00:47:03,120 --> 00:47:05,960 - But he's 500 years before all that. - Oh, yes. 756 00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:10,960 How does he dare to march so out of step from the rest of society? 757 00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:14,440 Because I think he absolutely believes 758 00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:17,200 that nobody else can harm his soul, 759 00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:20,040 but if he takes part in the illegal actions 760 00:47:20,040 --> 00:47:22,760 that he was invited to take part in, 761 00:47:22,760 --> 00:47:27,080 then he will be absolutely damaging his own soul 762 00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:31,080 and taking away his chance of a happy and flourishing life. 763 00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:35,720 In the name of wisdom and truth, 764 00:47:35,720 --> 00:47:38,120 Socrates was prepared to stick his head 765 00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:41,040 dangerously high above the parapet. 766 00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:43,160 Interestingly, it's a quality that he shares 767 00:47:43,160 --> 00:47:46,000 with both Confucius and the Buddha. 768 00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:47,840 For all three philosophers, 769 00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:50,240 personal comfort and personal security 770 00:47:50,240 --> 00:47:53,160 came a poor second to principle. 771 00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:57,320 And in the case of Socrates, having the courage of his convictions 772 00:47:57,320 --> 00:47:59,920 would prove to be a matter of life or death. 773 00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:11,480 As Athens' enemies closed in, 774 00:48:11,480 --> 00:48:13,800 society turned in on itself. 775 00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:18,760 Freedom was a luxury it could no longer afford. 776 00:48:24,640 --> 00:48:28,240 Finally, the Spartans brought Athens to her knees. 777 00:48:28,240 --> 00:48:29,960 They tore down her city walls 778 00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:33,480 and installed a junta of 30 hand-picked oligarchs. 779 00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:39,520 Death squads roamed the streets 780 00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:43,240 and thousands of democrats were "disappeared" - 781 00:48:43,240 --> 00:48:46,080 forced into exile or executed. 782 00:48:49,200 --> 00:48:51,680 Even though a counter-revolution restored democracy 783 00:48:51,680 --> 00:48:53,640 just eight months later, 784 00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:56,880 it was a deeply compromised democracy, 785 00:48:56,880 --> 00:48:59,640 riven with suspicion and recrimination. 786 00:49:01,320 --> 00:49:03,560 In this poisonous atmosphere, 787 00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:07,880 Athens finally decided to deal with its troublesome gadfly. 788 00:49:21,280 --> 00:49:24,960 In 399 BC, at the age of 70, 789 00:49:24,960 --> 00:49:27,440 Socrates was back in court. 790 00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:30,480 This time, HE was on trial. 791 00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:33,920 The accusations against him were read out here, in the Agora, 792 00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:36,440 close to this oath stone. 793 00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:38,360 The first charge was impiety - 794 00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:41,240 denying the gods and introducing new ones. 795 00:49:41,240 --> 00:49:44,360 The second, that he'd corrupted the young. 796 00:49:44,360 --> 00:49:47,840 Both could carry the heaviest penalty - 797 00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:49,040 execution. 798 00:49:54,680 --> 00:49:59,920 The trial took place in a religious court, using the latest technology. 799 00:49:59,920 --> 00:50:03,080 A water clock measured the three hours allowed 800 00:50:03,080 --> 00:50:04,680 to the prosecution's case. 801 00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:08,520 Were his accusers politically motivated? 802 00:50:08,520 --> 00:50:10,080 Was he being scapegoated 803 00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:15,080 for his association with prominent anti-democrats, like Alcibiades? 804 00:50:15,080 --> 00:50:16,920 Perhaps. 805 00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:20,480 But then, he'd set about to open the minds of the young 806 00:50:20,480 --> 00:50:22,640 and with his goading questions, 807 00:50:22,640 --> 00:50:24,680 to challenge the status quo. 808 00:50:28,640 --> 00:50:31,040 Eventually, the water clock was refilled 809 00:50:31,040 --> 00:50:33,320 for the philosopher to defend himself. 810 00:50:34,440 --> 00:50:38,360 Plato recounts how Socrates feels he's fighting a lost cause, 811 00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:42,160 thanks to Aristophanes' searing, damaging caricature of him. 812 00:50:50,240 --> 00:50:52,840 "It is not my crimes that will convict me", he said, 813 00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:54,640 "but rumour and gossip. 814 00:50:54,640 --> 00:50:56,880 "I can't possibly defend myself - 815 00:50:56,880 --> 00:50:59,680 "it's like boxing with shadows. 816 00:50:59,680 --> 00:51:02,600 "You will persuade yourselves that I am guilty." 817 00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:06,800 Yet, in typical style, 818 00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:10,000 Socrates uses his defence to sting his fellow Athenians 819 00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:12,520 from their moral slumber. 820 00:51:12,520 --> 00:51:15,640 It is a brilliant, audacious speech, 821 00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:18,160 but it's also provocative and arrogant, 822 00:51:18,160 --> 00:51:21,360 and the jurors don't like it one bit. 823 00:51:21,360 --> 00:51:25,200 The city that once fetishized freedom and freedom of speech 824 00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:27,920 could not tolerate freedom to offend. 825 00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:39,840 Socrates was judged by at least 500 men, chosen at random 826 00:51:39,840 --> 00:51:43,560 and recruited from all over the traumatised city-state. 827 00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:48,280 The jurors would have used these ballots in a secret vote. 828 00:51:48,280 --> 00:51:50,600 A solid stem for acquittal. 829 00:51:50,600 --> 00:51:52,480 A hollow for condemnation. 830 00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:06,160 Found guilty, a second vote is held to determine his punishment. 831 00:52:07,160 --> 00:52:09,520 Socrates has the chance to avoid execution 832 00:52:09,520 --> 00:52:11,920 by proposing a lesser alternative - 833 00:52:11,920 --> 00:52:13,920 typically a fine, or exile. 834 00:52:15,040 --> 00:52:19,400 Instead, by speaking freely, democratically, 835 00:52:19,400 --> 00:52:21,200 he seems to invite martyrdom. 836 00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:26,040 He declares that he's lived his life for the benefit of the city. 837 00:52:26,040 --> 00:52:29,320 He deserves reward, not retribution. 838 00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:33,600 He suggests dinner, in perpetuity, at the citizens' expense. 839 00:52:36,520 --> 00:52:40,360 Socrates' irony loses him more support in the second vote. 840 00:52:42,280 --> 00:52:45,560 It seems he takes the news philosophically. 841 00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:48,960 The jury couldn't harm his soul, 842 00:52:48,960 --> 00:52:51,560 but they had harmed their own. 843 00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:54,360 "Now I go to die and you to live. 844 00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:56,680 "God only knows which is the better journey." 845 00:53:02,160 --> 00:53:05,240 Socrates didn't fear what he didn't know, 846 00:53:05,240 --> 00:53:06,600 including death. 847 00:53:07,720 --> 00:53:10,920 The man the Oracle proclaimed to be the wisest 848 00:53:10,920 --> 00:53:15,240 was now on death row for putting his own philosophy into practice. 849 00:53:18,080 --> 00:53:21,400 One of the things I find so compelling about Socrates 850 00:53:21,400 --> 00:53:24,760 is that even though he lived 25 centuries ago, 851 00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:28,080 in many ways, he saw us coming. 852 00:53:28,080 --> 00:53:30,640 He denounces an obsession with looks, 853 00:53:30,640 --> 00:53:32,560 with material goods, 854 00:53:32,560 --> 00:53:35,360 with spin and with fame. 855 00:53:35,360 --> 00:53:38,400 He wasn't just exploring the meaning of life, 856 00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:41,120 but the meaning of our own lives. 857 00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:42,440 Just listen to this. 858 00:53:43,920 --> 00:53:46,400 "Oh, my friend, why do you, 859 00:53:46,400 --> 00:53:49,840 "who are a citizen of the great and wise city of Athens, 860 00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:54,440 "care so much about laying up wealth and honour and reputation? 861 00:53:54,440 --> 00:53:59,680 "And so little about wisdom and truth and improvement of the soul? 862 00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:02,800 "Are you not ashamed?" 863 00:54:07,800 --> 00:54:11,280 Socrates would have to wait a month for his execution - 864 00:54:11,280 --> 00:54:14,120 a sentence intended to silence him. 865 00:54:15,120 --> 00:54:18,080 But Socrates' death at the hands of the people 866 00:54:18,080 --> 00:54:20,160 provided the perfect ingredients 867 00:54:20,160 --> 00:54:23,800 for his resurrection as an ideological martyr - 868 00:54:23,800 --> 00:54:26,680 a kind of blueprint philosopher. 869 00:54:26,680 --> 00:54:29,560 And ironically, what secured his legacy 870 00:54:29,560 --> 00:54:33,680 was the very thing that he'd disregarded throughout his life - 871 00:54:33,680 --> 00:54:35,320 the written word. 872 00:54:36,640 --> 00:54:40,640 His supporters wrote detailed accounts of his extraordinary life, 873 00:54:40,640 --> 00:54:43,960 immortalising his ideas and his spirit. 874 00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:45,480 Through their words, 875 00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:50,400 his game-changing, history-making voice endures . 876 00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:53,320 Still asking those probing, universal questions 877 00:54:53,320 --> 00:54:56,880 which, even today, are at the heart of our value systems. 878 00:54:56,880 --> 00:54:58,600 What makes us good? 879 00:54:58,600 --> 00:55:00,480 What is justice? 880 00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:01,840 How can we be happy? 881 00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:08,400 Socrates was the inspiration for Plato and Aristotle - 882 00:55:08,400 --> 00:55:10,520 two giants of philosophy, 883 00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:15,240 whose ideas would shape Western and Eastern civilisation up until today. 884 00:55:17,240 --> 00:55:18,920 Following Socrates' death, 885 00:55:18,920 --> 00:55:23,200 Plato abandoned his political ambitions in disgust 886 00:55:23,200 --> 00:55:26,880 and set up his Academy, which would continue as a centre of learning 887 00:55:26,880 --> 00:55:29,760 for close on 1,000 years. 888 00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:32,040 This building is Athens' modern Academy 889 00:55:32,040 --> 00:55:34,360 and it's just a couple of miles from the original. 890 00:55:34,360 --> 00:55:37,920 And it's part of a network of academic institutions, 891 00:55:37,920 --> 00:55:42,200 right across the globe, inspired by that Athenian example. 892 00:55:59,280 --> 00:56:01,600 On the day of Socrates' execution, 893 00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:05,320 his distraught friends and family came here to the Agora. 894 00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:09,840 The place where Socrates had once walked freely was now his cage. 895 00:56:13,320 --> 00:56:14,640 But he is serene. 896 00:56:16,280 --> 00:56:20,720 Calmly, he lifts the lethal little cup of hemlock poison... 897 00:56:20,720 --> 00:56:21,960 and drinks. 898 00:56:28,560 --> 00:56:30,760 We're told that Socrates' last words 899 00:56:30,760 --> 00:56:32,920 as the lethal hemlock took effect were, 900 00:56:32,920 --> 00:56:36,440 "Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius." 901 00:56:37,480 --> 00:56:39,440 With this cryptic message, 902 00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:41,640 even on the brink of death, 903 00:56:41,640 --> 00:56:44,800 he kept his followers and future scholars guessing. 904 00:56:48,200 --> 00:56:52,320 Was he proving himself pious by invoking one of the city's deities? 905 00:56:53,480 --> 00:56:57,400 Or was he ironically giving thanks to the god of healing 906 00:56:57,400 --> 00:57:00,520 for relieving him of the sickness of existence? 907 00:57:02,040 --> 00:57:05,200 Socrates might have been infuriating, 908 00:57:05,200 --> 00:57:09,240 but his tenacious questioning of what it means to be human 909 00:57:09,240 --> 00:57:12,840 still has absolute resonance. 910 00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:15,960 By stating that the ultimate evil is ignorance 911 00:57:15,960 --> 00:57:19,200 and that a good life is within our reach, 912 00:57:19,200 --> 00:57:23,960 he challenges us all never to be thoughtless. 913 00:57:28,120 --> 00:57:31,720 "The unexamined life is not worth living." 914 00:57:35,120 --> 00:57:36,800 With his head covered, 915 00:57:36,800 --> 00:57:41,720 no-one saw the final moment, when Socrates' precious soul 916 00:57:41,720 --> 00:57:47,440 slipped from that ugly, satirical, unforgettable face. 917 00:57:58,000 --> 00:57:59,920 If the mind of Socrates has made you think, 918 00:57:59,920 --> 00:58:02,680 then explore further with The Open University 919 00:58:02,680 --> 00:58:06,440 to discover how great minds have influenced our thinking today. 920 00:58:06,440 --> 00:58:07,880 Follow the address on the screen 921 00:58:07,880 --> 00:58:10,360 and then the links to The Open University. 922 00:58:14,120 --> 00:58:18,240 Next time, I investigate the gentleman philosopher, Confucius. 923 00:58:19,920 --> 00:58:23,640 His attempts to influence the rulers of his day ended in failure... 924 00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:28,760 ..yet his vision of a harmonious society, 925 00:58:28,760 --> 00:58:32,000 inspired by the sage kings of the past 926 00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:36,760 would eventually shape one of the world's greatest civilisations.