Socrates

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek philosopher Socrates, acknowledged as one of the founders of Western philosophy. Born in 469 BC into the golden age of the city of Athens, he has profoundly influenced philosophy ever since. In fact, his impact is so profound that all the thinkers who went before are simply known as pre-Socratic.In person Socrates was deliberately irritating, he was funny and he was rude; he didn’t like democracy very much and spent quite a lot of time in shoe shops. He claimed he was on a mission from God to educate his fellow Athenians but has left us nothing in his own hand because he refused to write anything down.

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Guests

• Angie Hobbs 24 episodes
  Associate Professor of Philosophy at Warwick University
• David Sedley 3 episodes
  Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Cambridge University
• Paul Millett No other episodes
  Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Cambridge

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Programme ID: b007zp21

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007zp21

Auto-category: 180 (Ancient, medieval, & eastern philosophy)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. Of all the names in ancient philosophy, Socrates is the most intriguing.