Socrates

Socrates (c.470-399 BC) wrote nothing — yet he is perhaps the most consequential figure in Western thought. He walked the streets of Athens asking politicians, craftsmen, and poets to define justice, courage, and piety, and exposed every answer as inadequate. The Socratic method of systematic questioning through dialogue is still the primary pedagogical tool of law schools worldwide. Tried in 399 BC for impiety and corrupting Athenian youth, he was found guilty by a slim margin. When offered exile or silence, he refused both, declaring that an unexamined life is not worth living. He drank hemlock and died among his friends. His execution traumatised and radicalised his student Plato, who dedicated his life to building the philosophical system that Socrates' death demanded.