The Secret Life of Socrates

According to Diogenes Laertius, Socrates "was very clever in all rhetorical exercises, as Idomeneus also assures us. But the thirty tyrants forbade him to give lessons in the art of speaking and arguing, as Xenophon tells us. ... For he was the first man, as Favorinus says in his Universal History, who, in conjunction with Aeschines his student, taught people how to become orators. And Idomeneus makes the same assertion in his essay on the Socratic School. Similarly, he was the first person who conversed about human life; and was also the first philosopher who was condemned to death and executed."

The accusations against Socrates may have stemmed from the following conversation that may have been recorded by Plato in his Secret Lives of Eminent Philosophers:

SOCRATES: Thus we see that Justice is so great a virtue that it cannot be denied to any man, and that freedom of speech is likewise.

KORPORATIOS: It is not Justice that is our stumbling-block. Tell us, O Socrates, how it is that your students learn.

SOCRATES: They are instructed through discussion. As the discussion progresses, viewpoints are both expressed and examined.

BUROCRATES: And how is their learning measured?

SOCRATES: They learn as they debate. Their comprehension of those principles progresses at their individual rates.

BUROCRATES: But it is necessary that your goals and objectives be clearly stated in writing.

SOCRATES: The comprehension of societal virtues is the goal. Of this my students are certain.

BUROCRATES: These goals must be written on papyrus, and it is necessary that they be accompanied by measurable outcomes.

KORPORATIOS: It is no surprise that you do not have enough students to maintain your workload, according to the formula established by the Thirty, and approved by the Thirteen.

SOCRATES: The goal of instruction is found in the heart of every student who comes to learn. The outcome is simple. The learner has a better grasp of how to function in a free society.

BUROCRATES: Firstly, write these things down. Secondly, it is difficult to see how you measure their progress in completing your courses.

SOCRATES: Some students never understand. But as they speak freely, I am able to perceive their comprehension of the virtues.

BUROCRATES: Why have you written none of these things in a sullabos? And why have you failed to conform with the established practices that lead to a sound education?

SOCRATES: SIr, I perceive these practices to be counterproductive.

KORPORATIOS: Be careful, Socrates, that you do not approach blasphemy!

BUROCRATES: We must also see that you have informed disabled students of their rights.

KORPORATIOS: It is further necessary that you conduct multiple-choice student evaluations of your instructional processes.

SOCRATES: I am certain, sirs, that my discussions produce learning, for my former students demonstrate knowledge of the principles in which I instructed them.

BUROCRATES: And yet you avoid the necessary things, such as multiple instruments of measurement. I determine that your practices are unsound, and that no one will ever learn through your methods.

KORPORATIOS: I further discern that you should be denied tenure at this institution -- both for corrupting the youth with your concept of the discussion of different ideas and for your failure to conform to the sound educational methods. Disagreement is not expedient, but forms, and measurement keys, and paperwork are both expedient and necessary.

-----------------------

Epilogue: According to Plato's account of The Defense of Socrates, the oracle at Delphi had pronounced Socrates to be the wisest man in Athens, but his opponents did not consider him so. Socrates was found guilty of "corrupting the youth of Athens" by a vote of 280 to 220. For his crimes against the state, he was imprisoned and forced to commit suicide by drinking hemlock.