The three great Athenian philosophers were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. They were each connected to each other in the sense that Aristotle was one of Plato’s students, and Plato was one of Socrates’ Pupils. All of whom were knowledgeable men, each with many both similar and different from each other’s ideas about philosophy, politics, and education (Everyday Life in Ancient Greece)
Socrates was the first of the three great Athenian philosophers. He was born in Athens in 469 B.C. into a family that was fairly poor (Carr). His father was a sculptor and Socrates practiced as one as well, but his true love was always philosophy (Boeree). He fought bravely for Athens in the Peloponnesian War, and when it ended, he had time to peruse what he wanted (Carr). When he was in his mid forties, he began to really think about the world around him, and found himself captivated by questions like “What is beauty?”, “What is Piety?”, and “What is Wisdom?” (Carr). He found these sorts of questions hard to answer and thought that it would be easier if a lot of people thought about the questions together, so as to come up with more ideas. This was the real beginning of his endeavors in philosophy (Carr).
He began by simply walking around and asking people questions like what they thought wisdom of piety really was (Boeree). Many of people simply shook him off and ignored him, but some people tried to answer him (Carr). When people actually thought about the questions and came up with answers to them, Socrates would try to teach them to think more in-depth by asking them more questions to make them see the problems in their own logic. This method of teaching is called the Socratic Method, and is widely known and used to this day (Everyday Life in Ancient Greece). Soon enough, Socrates had acquired a group of young men whom he considered his pupils. Among them was one of the other great Athenian philosophers, Plato (Carr). Since Socrates never wrote down his ideas and teachings,...