Socrates (Greek: Σωκράτης； English: Socrates; German: Sokrates (469 BC [1], from 470 BC [2] to 399 BC), is one of the founders of Greek (Athens) philosophy.
Socrates had a strong influence on philosophers in later ancient and modern times. Socrates' description of art, literature and popular culture made him one of the most well-known figures in the western philosophical tradition. [3]
At the age of 70, Socrates was tried by the Athens court on the charges of "disrespect for the name of God", "belief in new gods" and "bewitching young people", and finally chose to drink poison wine and die. [8]
Fourteen years after Socrates' death (385 BC), the Athens court tried the Socrates case again, acquitted Socrates, and sentenced the death penalty of Meletus, who falsely accused Socrates at that time. Lucon and Anitus were sentenced to exile. The mason also carved the head of Socrates to commemorate this event.

childhood
Socrates was born into the family of an ordinary citizen in Athens, Greece. His father Sophroniscus [4] is a sculptor, and his mother Phaenarete [4] is a midwife. The family scraped by on a meager allowance. [6]
youth
Socrates once learned the art of carving from his father. Later, he read Homer's epics and the works of other famous poets, and became a very learned man by self-study. He made a living by imparting knowledge. In his 30s, he became a social ethics teacher who neither paid nor set up a library.
Socrates regarded himself as a gift and an envoy given by God to the Athenians. His task was to talk to people everywhere all day long, discuss problems, and explore the most useful truth and wisdom for people. Therefore, most of his life was spent outdoors, and he likes to talk about various issues with people from all walks of life in public places such as markets, sports fields and streets. For example, what is piety? What is democracy? What is virtue? What is courage? What is truth? And what is your job? What knowledge and skills do you have? Are you a politician? If so, what have you learned about governance? Are you a teacher? How do you conquer your ignorance before educating the ignorant? wait.
The theme that runs through these discussions is to guide people to understand that people are very ignorant about these issues that are crucial to people. Therefore, people need to seek what is true justice and good through critical research to achieve the goal of transforming the soul and saving the city.
Socrates said, "My mother is a midwife, and I will follow her footsteps. I am a spiritual midwife, helping others produce their own ideas." He also compared himself to a gadfly, a gift from God to Athens. The purpose that God gave him to Athens was to stimulate the country with this gadfly, because Athens was like a horse, but because it was fat and lazy, it became dull and lethargic, so it was necessary to have a gadfly bite it tightly, scold it and persuade it at any time and anywhere, so that it could wake up from the lethargy and refresh itself.
Socrates regarded criticizing Athens as a sacred mission given to him by God. This sense of mission and the resulting thinking and exploration became the purpose of his life and philosophical practice. He knew that doing so would make many people very angry and would trample on the gadfly, but the mission given by God to him could not be violated, so he risked his life. In this sense, he claims to be a holy gadfly who criticizes the current situation.
middle age
Around the age of 40, he became a famous figure in Athens. He debated philosophical issues with many wise people at that time in Athens, mainly about ethics and education and politics, and was considered the most intelligent person at that time.
He advocates that people understand the truth of life and live a moral life. He defined philosophy as "love wisdom", and one of his important points is that he knows his ignorance. Many children of rich and poor families often gathered around him and asked him for advice, Socrates often said, "I only know I know nothing." He concluded: "Only God is wise, and his answer is to point out that human wisdom is worthless or worthless. God is not saying Socrates, he just uses my name as an explanation, as if to say, people, only those who know that their wisdom is actually worthless like Socrates are the most intelligent people." He is proud of his ignorance, He also believes that everyone should admit his ignorance.
As a citizen, he has participated in military operations three times, worked as a heavy infantry soldier, and showed tenacity and courage in the war, and rescued wounded soldiers more than once in the battle. In addition, he also served as a juror in the Athens Civic Congress.
Be killed
Socrates' sculptures and works of art
Socrates' sculptures and works of art (11 pieces)
After the restoration of slave-owner democracy in Athens, Socrates was charged with contempt for traditional religions, introduction of new gods, corruption of youth and opposition to democracy, and sentenced to death. According to the Crito, he refused the advice of his friends and students to beg for pardon and escape, drank poison and died at the age of 70.
Socrates really advocated a new god, who is the source of moral goodness and wisdom: the rational god of the universe. This universal rational god is the ultimate basis for Socrates' philosophical pursuit of the true good. People can have knowledge because they have been given special care by God and are endowed with a part of divinity, so they have a soul, a mind and reason that love wisdom. But people should understand that your soul is incomparable with God's wisdom. Therefore, the new concept of rational God and the teaching of "self knowledge and ignorance" have become a powerful force to stimulate and promote people to pursue true knowledge and criticize untrue, false, false and hypocritical.
Socrates loved the city of Athens, and he did not allow the most sacred belief to be desecrated at all. Therefore, he resolutely chose to die. He does not treasure his life, but he pays more attention to his soul. He believes that God is everywhere and omnipotent, and everything is God's conscious and purposeful ingenious arrangement. He did not betray God. In this case, death is God's call to him. What can he hesitate? Maybe people laugh at him, laugh at his naivety, laugh at his obstinacy and obstinacy, but only those who have a real insight into his inner world will be impressed by his wisdom and loyalty: wisdom makes him see and always pay close attention to the virtues that people have not noticed, loyalty is in the city he loves, in the laws he abides by all his life, and in his eternal ideal pursuit.
In the case of Socrates, one side was a great philosopher who pursued truth and sacrificed his life for justice, while the other side was the Athenian city-state, which boasted democracy and freedom and was regarded as the source of democracy. It is not so clear who is right and who is good and who is evil. The emotional choice becomes a painful torture, so its tragic color is more and more obvious.
Socrates had a large number of fanatical admirers and a large number of fierce opponents both before and after his death. He left no works in his life. His behavior and theory were mainly handed down through the records in the works of his students Plato and Xenophon. As for Socrates' life and theory, there have been various records and statements since ancient times, which has been the most discussed issue in academic circles.
But his influence is huge. In the history of European culture, he has been regarded as a sage who died for the pursuit of truth, almost the same as Confucius in the history of China. Historians of philosophy often regard him as the watershed in the development of ancient Greek philosophy, and call his previous philosophy the pre-Socratic philosophy. He opened a new era of Greek philosophy with a new understanding of philosophy, and with his basic thought of soul reincarnation and purification, he exerted a profound and tremendous influence on Plato, and through them, he has been influencing the western philosophy of the Hellenistic Roman era and even later generations.

It is not a simple matter to study Socrates' philosophical belief: since he has not left any works of his own, we can only explore them from the records of Plato and Xenophon. However, their records are often contradictory, so it has always been a controversial topic about which record is closer to the truth. Some people believe that Socrates does not have any particular belief, but only interrogates each belief; Plato's lengthy theory published in the Republic is actually Plato's own idea. It is quite difficult to distinguish the concepts of Plato and Socrates from the records, and it is more difficult to explain their concepts. Therefore, it is not easy to find Socrates' ideas from the records of Plato, Xenophon and others - it must be noted that these ideas may not be put forward by Socrates himself, but may be closer to the views of these recorders themselves.
The evidence obtained from the dialogue shows that Socrates had only two teachers: the grammarian Prodicus and a priestess Diotima, who taught Socrates about love. Some dialogues also show that Socrates was influenced by thinkers at that time, such as Parmenides and Anaxagoras, who are usually regarded as Socrates' mentors in historical records. John Burnet, a classical historian, claimed that Socrates' main mentor was Archelaus, a scholar of the Anaxagorean school, and that the record of Archelaus was actually Socrates' own theory. Eric A. Havelock believes that the relationship between Socrates and Anaxagoras proves the difference between his philosophy and Plato.
Before Socrates, Greek philosophy mainly studied what is the origin of the universe and what constitutes the world. Later generations called it "natural philosophy". Socrates believes that it is of no practical significance to study these problems again to save the country. He once said: My friend is not the trees outside the city, but the people inside the city. It is out of this concern for the fate of the country and the people that Socrates began to study human itself, that is, the ethical issues of human beings, such as what is justice and what is injustice; What is courage, what is cowardice; What is honesty and what is hypocrisy; What is wisdom and how does knowledge come from; What is the country, what quality people can govern the country well, how to cultivate talents for governing the country, and so on. Socrates believes that the definition of a philosopher should be one who loves wisdom, not one who has wisdom. Later generations call Socrates' philosophy "ethical philosophy". He opened a new field for philosophical research, and made philosophy "return from heaven to earth", which has great significance in the history of philosophy.
Socrates' philosophy is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
heart
Beginning with the wise, ancient Greek philosophy changed from focusing on the study of nature itself to focusing on the study of social ethics and human beings. But they only stay at the perceptual stage and can only draw relativistic conclusions. It was only Socrates who fundamentally changed this situation. Socrates asked for a "spiritual turn" to turn philosophy from the study of nature to the study of self, that is, to pull philosophy from heaven to earth, as people often said later. He believed that the pursuit of the truth of nature was endless; I feel that the world is always changing, so the knowledge I get is also uncertain. If Socrates wants to pursue an unchangeable, definite and eternal truth, he should not seek the natural outside world, but return to himself and study himself. His famous saying is to know yourself. From Socrates, the self and nature are clearly distinguished; Man is no longer just a part of nature, but another unique entity different from nature.
soul
Socrates' theory of soul further clarified the division of spirit and material. The philosophers before Socrates have long said that the soul is immortal, and that idealism and materialism are in the bud. However, philosophers before him had a vague view of the soul, and some also regarded the soul as the most delicate material. Therefore, the boundary between idealism and materialism was not clear. It was not until Socrates that he clearly regarded the soul as a spiritual entity that was essentially different from the material. In Socrates' view, the emergence and destruction of things is just the aggregation and dispersion of something. His idea of clearly opposing spirit and material has become the origin of philosophy.
truth
According to Aristotle, Socrates abandoned his study of the natural world, wanted to seek universal truth on ethical issues, and began to seek a definition of things. He opposed the relativism of wise men and believed that "opinions" could be varied, but "truth" could only be one; "Opinions" can change with each person and other conditions, but "truth" is eternal and unchangeable. In Plato's early dialogues, almost all the topics discussed were how to define ethics. What Socrates pursues is to know "beauty itself" and "justice itself", which is the universal definition of beauty and justice, and is true knowledge, that is, the "idea of beauty" and "idea of justice" that Plato said. This is the initial form of "theory of ideas" in the history of western philosophy. Socrates further pointed out that the series of causes and effects in nature is endless. If philosophy only seeks such causes and effects, it is impossible to understand the ultimate cause of things. He believes that the ultimate cause of things is "good", which is the purpose of things. He replaced the study of causation with teleology, and opened up the way for future philosophy.

dialectical
Midwifery and dialectics of revealing contradictions
Socrates believes that all knowledge comes from difficulties. The more progress we make, the more difficulties we have. Socrates admitted that he had no knowledge at all, and that he wanted to teach others. This contradiction was solved in this way: the knowledge was not instilled by him, but was already possessed by people; People are pregnant with "fetus" in their hearts, but they do not know that Socrates is like a "midwife", helping others produce knowledge. Socrates' midwifery is mainly manifested in the form of "questioning" which he often uses to reveal the contradictions in various propositions and theories put forward by the other party in the way of questioning, so as to shake the basis of the other party's argument and point out the other party's ignorance; In the questioning, Socrates himself did not give a positive and positive answer, because he admitted his ignorance. This way is generally referred to as "the irony of Socrates". This method of Socrates is developed from the logical inference of Elijah School and the disproval of Zeno of Elijah. Generality is summed up from special cases, and it is considered that general precedes and is higher than special, which is an independent thing. In the negative form of Socrates' satire, there are positive results of revealing contradictory dialectical thinking. Su's self-comparison with the midwife made the other party gradually understand their ignorance, discover their mistakes, and establish correct knowledge concepts by using the method of cocoon stripping and silk drawing in the conversation. The characteristic of this kind of conversation is that the conversation is based on questions and answers to clarify the other party's ideas and make them discover the truth. Only in the course of the conversation, Su Shi focused on asking questions, and he did not easily answer the other party's questions. He only asked the other party to answer the questions he put forward. He asked questions in a modest manner. The other party's answers led to the information of other questions, until the youth finally admitted his ignorance due to constant questioning. In the process of asking questions, Su gave his students the highest wisdom, which is the famous Socrates irony. This method of Socrates is the earliest form of dialectics in the history of western philosophy.
From the development of philosophy, Socrates put forward the distinction between spiritual and material entities, which made the opposition between idealism and materialism break away from the simple state of early philosophy and enter a more mature stage; He raised the ethical thought of the aphorism of the early Greek philosophers to the height of philosophy; He enlightens thoughts and exposes contradictions in the way of logical debate, and goes deep into the essence of things in the way of dialectical thinking. All these contribute to the development of philosophical thinking. However, as the first philosopher with systematic ideas in the history of western philosophy, he began the era of subjective and rational, abstract thinking, and replaced religious mythology with deism.
education
Socrates has been engaged in education all his life, has rich experience in educational practice and has his own educational theory. But he did not set up his own school. So where does he teach? How does he teach? Square, temple, street, shop, workshop, gymnasium and so on are all places where he teaches. Young people, old people, rich people, poor people, farmers, craftsmen, nobles, and civilians are all the objects of his teaching. Whoever asks for his advice, he will teach enthusiastically. At that time, other teachers, the wise, collected tuition fees. They used to be teachers as a means of making money. Socrates taught people without tuition fees. He taught people for the benefit of the city and was a compulsory teacher. He believes that education is very important for one's growth. He believed that both intelligent and insensitive people must study hard if they are determined to achieve commendable achievements.
The purpose of Socrates' education is to cultivate talents for governing the country. After the death of Pericles, Athens had no good leaders, and the democratic system became extreme democracy and anarchism. Even the country leaders were selected by drawing lots or drawing lots. Socrates was very distressed. He believed that the talents of running the country must have a good education, and advocated training the talents of running the country through education. In order to cultivate talents for governing the country, he has devoted all his life.
As for the content of education, he advocated that first of all, we should cultivate people's virtue, teach people how to behave and become virtuous people; Secondly, we should teach people to learn extensive and practical knowledge. He believed that a ruler must have extensive knowledge. He said that in all matters, those who are respected and praised are those who have the broadest knowledge, while those who are condemned and despised are those who are the most ignorant; Finally, he advocated teaching people to exercise. He believes that a healthy body is very important for physical and mental activities, whether in peacetime or wartime. And a healthy body is not natural. Only through exercise can people be strong.
In terms of teaching methods, Socrates has formed his own unique teaching method through long-term teaching practice. People call it "Socrates method", and he himself calls it "midwifery". His mother was a midwife, and he used this as a metaphor for his teaching method. His mother's midwifery is to deliver the baby, while his "midwifery" teaching principle is to deliver the baby for thought, which is to guide people to produce correct ideas.
The "Socrates method" is conducted in the form of teachers and students' questions and answers from beginning to end, so it is also called "question and answer method". Socrates, when teaching students to acquire a certain concept, does not directly tell the students about the concept, but first asks the students questions and asks them to answer. If the students answer wrong, he does not directly correct them. Instead, he asks other questions to guide the students to think, so as to draw correct conclusions step by step. It lays the foundation for heuristic teaching.
The question-and-answer method advocated by Socrates has a great influence on later generations. Until today, the question-and-answer method is still an important teaching method.
One such thing happened in Socrates' teaching. On the first day of school, Socrates said to his students, "Today we only do one thing, everyone try to swing their arms forward and then back." Then he did a demonstration. "From today on, can you do 300 times a day?" The students laughed. Who can't do such a simple thing. But a year later, when Socrates asked again, only one of his students persisted. Later, this person became a new generation of thinkers after him, and this person was called Plato. Socrates actually has an assistant who is his real heir.
Socrates has his own teaching plan
One day in class, the philosopher Socrates took out an apple and stood in front of the podium and said, "Please smell the smell of the air!" A student raised his hand and replied, "I smell the smell of the apple!" Socrates walked down the podium and walked slowly in front of each student with the apple, He also asked: "Please smell carefully again. Is there any smell of apple in the air?" At this time, half of the students raised their hands. Socrates returned to the podium and asked the question again. This time, except for one student who did not raise his hand, everyone else raised his hand. Socrates walked up to the student and asked, "Don't you really smell anything?" The student said positively, "I really don't smell anything!" At this time, Socrates announced to everyone, "He is right, because this is a fake apple." This student is the later famous philosopher Plato.
ethic
Socrates has established an ethical thought system that virtue is knowledge, and its center is to explore the purpose of life and virtue. He stressed that people should understand the universal principles of social life and "know themselves", and believed that all kinds of beneficial or harmful purposes and moral norms acquired by people in real life are relative. Only by exploring the concept of universal and absolute good, and grasping the true knowledge of the concept, is people's highest purpose of life and supreme virtue. Socrates believes that a person must have moral knowledge if he wants to have morality, and all immoral behaviors are the result of ignorance. Only when people get rid of the temptation of material desire and the limitation of acquired experience and acquire conceptual knowledge, can they have the virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance and justice. He believed that morality can only be arranged by the mind and the god, and moral education is to make people know the mind and the god and follow the instructions of the gods. This ethical thought of asceticism and mysticism was later inherited and developed by Antisthenes, forming a cynical school characterized by emphasizing asceticism; The theory of happiness contained in Socrates' ethical thought was inherited and developed by Aristotle to form the Cyrene school advocating hedonism. Plato fully inherited Socrates' ethical thought system and further systematized and theorized it. Socrates emphasized the importance of knowledge and thought that ethics and morality should be determined by reason. This rationalism thought played a positive role in the development of western philosophy in the future

debate
Socrates often argues with others. During the debate, he used the form of question and answer to make the other party correct and give up the original wrong ideas and help people produce new ideas. This kind of question and answer is divided into three steps: the first step is called Socrates irony, which he believes is a necessary step to make people smart, because unless a person is very modest and "knows his ignorance", he cannot learn true knowledge. The second step is definition. After repeated questioning and induction in the question and answer, we can draw a clear definition and concept. The third step is midwifery, which guides students to think for themselves and draw their own conclusions. As Socrates himself said, although he is ignorant, he can help others gain knowledge, just like his mother is a midwife. Although she is old and unable to give birth, she can deliver and help new life to be born.
Socrates taught his friend Euthydemus not to give them ready-made answers, but to make students unconsciously accept the influence of his thoughts by asking questions and refuting. Please look at an interesting example of his question and answer with students.
Euthydemus: What is good, Socrates?
Socrates: Is stealing, cheating, and treating people as slaves good or bad?
Euthydemus: It is evil.
Socrates: Is it evil to deceive the enemy? Is it evil to sell captured enemies as slaves?
Euthydemus: This is a good deed. However, I am talking about friends rather than enemies.
Socrates: According to you, stealing is bad for friends. However, if a friend wants to commit suicide, you steal the tool he intends to use to commit suicide. Is this a bad deed?
Euthydemus: Good deeds.
Socrates: You said that cheating on friends is bad, but in the war, the commander of the army said to the soldiers that the reinforcements were coming in order to boost their morale. But in fact, there is no reinforcements. Is this kind of deception evil?
Euthydemus: This is a good deed.
This teaching method has its advantages. It can enlighten people's thinking, make people actively analyze and think about problems, and prove that the truth is concrete and relative in a dialectical way. Under certain conditions, it can transform to its opposite. This epistemology has great significance in the history of European thought.
Governing the country
Socrates advocated the theory of expert governance. He believed that all walks of life and even the state power should be managed by trained and knowledgeable people, and opposed the democracy implemented by the lottery election law. He said: The managers are not those who hold power and bully others with power, not those who are elected by the people, but those who know how to manage. For example, a ship should be driven by people familiar with navigation; When spinning wool, women should manage men because they are good at it, but men do not understand it. He also said that the best people are those who are competent for their work. A good farmer is good at farming; A good doctor is one who is proficient in medicine; A good politician is one who is proficient in politics.

Poisonous wine
The Death of Socrates
The Death of Socrates
Socrates, the most outstanding philosopher in ancient Greece, had a profound influence on the development of western philosophy. Socrates has been exploring the truth all his life. Because he is good at rhetoric, he often refutes those shallow people who think they are knowledgeable. Therefore, he enjoys high prestige among the youth. Unfortunately, in 399 BC, he was tried in public by the democratic aristocracy for inciting the youth and insulting the Athenian god, and was sentenced to death.
According to the law of Athens at that time, the way to execute a prisoner was to give him a glass of poison wine, but during the month before execution, the court allowed relatives and friends of the prisoner to visit the prison. At that time, many young people went to the prison to visit Socrates every day. When a young man named Critong asked Socrates if he had any last words, Socrates replied, "I have nothing else to ask for but what I have said to you at ordinary times. Please keep in mind. You must keep your integrity. If you do not live as I said, then no matter how many promises you make to me now, you will not be able to comfort my dead." Then he got up and went to take a bath.
On the evening of June 399 BC, on the night Socrates was about to be executed, he was seen in rags and barefoot, but his face was calm. He dismissed his wife and daughter and went to talk with his students Phaedo, Simmias, Sipas and Kerry about the eternal life of the soul. Before long, the jailer came in and said, "Whenever I order prisoners to take poison and drink, they hate and curse me, but I must obey the orders of my superiors. You are the noblest person among many prisoners here, so I think you will never hate me, but only those who want to kill you. I am now ordered to execute the order, and I hope you will suffer less pain. Farewell, my friend." After that, tears filled your face and left the cell. Socrates looked at the jailer's back and said, "Farewell, friend, I will do as you say." Then he turned his head again, He kindly said to the young people, "What a good man! Since I was in prison, he has come to see me every day and sometimes talked to me with a kind attitude. Now he is crying for me again. What a kind person! Come here, Critong. If the poison is ready, send someone to fetch it immediately, otherwise please go to mix it quickly." Critong replied: "It is said that some prisoners who hear that they are going to be executed will try every means to delay the time so that they can enjoy a rich dinner. Please don't worry, there is still time!" Socrates said at this time: "It's true that you are right. Those people are beyond reproach for doing so, because in their view, delaying the time of taking poison wine will gain something; but for me, delaying the time of taking poison wine will not gain anything. On the contrary, such behavior of sparing life and getting a good meal should be despised in my view. Go and get the wine. Please respect my request." [4]
At this time, Creton had to use his eyes to hint at the little boy waiting for the order, and the boy went outside. After a while, the child came back and led a man in. The man who came in was holding a cup, which contained poison, namely poison. So you can drink poison at any time. Socrates asked the man with the poison cup in his hand, "Please tell me what I should do?"
The man said, "After you drink the poison, as long as you keep walking here, if you feel your feet getting heavier and heavier, you will lie down. This shows that the poison has taken effect.", He calmly said, "It's time to break up. I will die. They will survive. Who's the best choice? Only God knows." He took the glass and drank it down. Everyone present was crying for the loss of such a good friend. Socrates was very unhappy. He said, "How can you do this? I sent the family away in order to avoid this kind of scene. As the saying goes," Don't be afraid in the face of danger, look at death as if you are dead. Please be strong! "Socrates then walked around the room for a while, said that his legs were numb, and then lay down. The man who delivered the wine came to touch his body and felt that there was no heat left. His last words were: "Criton, I owe Asclepios a chicken (that is, I want Criton to pay the tribute to the god of medicine), and remember to pay this debt for me." [4] After that, the great philosopher closed his eyes and quietly left the world.
Socrates' philosophy is integrated with his life practice, and his personal fate is inseparable from the fate of Athens. He pursued the ideal of good for his country, and his country rewarded his contribution with the death penalty, fulfilling his philosophy. Socrates did not have the slightest anger, fear or sadness, but still sincerely advised everything in his wise tone. He knew that he was the messenger of God, and that all this was arranged by God. He still had unfinished parts of his life, and death just gave him a perfect ending.
In ancient Greece, the law was regarded as the basis of the security of the city-state, with Goddess-like dignity, and can be said to be the real protection god of the city-state. Under the protection of this god, the ancient Greek city-states were governed by law, and no one's status was higher than the law. Socrates believed that the laws of a city were an agreement made by the citizens and should be implemented unswervingly. Only by observing the laws can the people work together to make the city strong and incomparably strong. Strictly observing the laws is the fundamental guarantee for the people's happiness and the strength of the city, and its value is far higher than the life of individuals.
Socrates also believed that the law, like the city-state, originated from God and was the principle of God. Law was originally embodied as natural law, which is also natural law. It is purely a divine will or a divine arrangement. Later, the laws promulgated by the city-states were called man-defined laws. Although human law is not as universal as natural law, it is also volatile. However, because human law originates from natural law, people's acceptance and obedience to the guidance of human law means that people accept and obey the constraints of natural law, that is, obey the will of God. The ideal state of a city must be that everyone obeys the law from the heart. This is not only the ideal and belief of Socrates in his life, but also the internal motivation of his last generous sacrifice for the law.
When Socrates was unjustly sentenced to death by his compatriots, he still talked about "abiding by morality, valuing justice, the treasure of law, and the value of the rule of law". He believed that the value of life could not be greater than that. It was really full of the spirit of freedom. Socrates is a hero. He realized the power of moral ideal and consciously and voluntarily realized it, even if he sacrificed his life for it. His death is a tragedy. The tragedy lies in the fact that both sides of the conflict have reasons for existence and are irreconcilable. So Socrates shouldered the great conflict with his own body and the responsibility and mission of free personality. For Socrates, his career is his spirit, self-conscious, voluntary, self-disciplined and free spirit, which is magnified through him.

Creton
Born in the same year as Socrates, he is a person of the same district and ethnic group, a general friend, and an old friend for many years. Sometimes he also goes to the square to listen to Socrates' lectures, and his relationship with Socrates is also the "wind" of "teachers and friends". As a rich man in Athens, he expressed his willingness to pay a large sum of money to save Socrates from death more than once when Socrates was tried and after Su's death in prison. But Socrates was determined to be ungrateful, to sacrifice his life for justice, and to sacrifice his life and martyrdom in order to safeguard the laws formulated by the Athenian democratic system. Socrates believed that paying the ransom to avoid death was actually to admit his guilt, which was to live in a muddle. He refused to admit his guilt and was willing to accept the ruling of the law. Although he was executed, he was awe-inspiring. As a philosopher, he was the most noble manifestation of martyrdom.
Socrates said to him, "I can't do what you said until I find another good way. I can't follow your advice. Please forgive me." Then Socrates even said, "Even if those people want to use more cruel means than now, such as imprisonment, confiscation of property, killing, etc., I'm not willing to escape.