Socrates

SOCRATES EATS HEMLOCK! Ahem, anyway:
Socrates is one of the grandpappies of Western thought and a widely influential Greek philosopher, not much is known about his life because he was a little before Facebook and terrible at keeping diaries. What we do know comes from his students, including Plato, who wrote bits and bobs that were then cobbled together by ancient historians with nothing better to do into a mostly coherent series of events.

Physically, Plato rather unkindly wrote that Socrates was short and stocky, with bulging eyes that made it constantly appear as though he were staring. On an unrelated note, Socrates tended to play down the importance of the body and highlight the significance of having a good mind, you do you Socrates, you do you. This approach was also important in that is gave Plato his first grasp around the forms and the idea of a separation between the physical and the mental.

He was also remarkable for his time in pushing for a logic based approach to philosophy, focused on human reason, rather than theological doctrine *cough* Descartes *cough*.

Famous For:

 * The Socratic Method (yeah science!)
 * Teaching Plato
 * Giving the middle finger to the Athenian ruling class
 * Dying like a boss
 * Very uncouthly refusing a rescue attempt
 * Drinking poison in front of his would-be rescuer, just to prove a point
 * Actually, that kind of sheer courage kind of makes up for the earlier ungrateful dick-move

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