Socrates

Socrates Socrates was an Athenian philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, known entirely through the writings of his students — principally Plato and Xenophon — since he left no writings of his own. His method of rigorous questioning (the Socratic method) remains the paradigmatic model of philosophical inquiry and critical thinking. Condemned to death by an Athenian jury for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens, he chose to drink hemlock rather than abandon his philosophical mission, a defining act of intellectual martyrdom.