Socrates: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Socrates left no writings, so his mix is necessarily a map of the Athens that shaped him and the students who invented him on the page. Here are the natural philosophers he outgrew, the sophists and lost dialogues that hover at the edges of the record, the comic poet who caricatured him, and the long line of thinkers who claim him.

The Kynda mix for Socrates

• Key Influence · On Nature (fragments) by Anaxagoras (c. 460 BC). In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates describes his youthful excitement at a book of Anaxagoras that promised Mind (Nous) as the ordering cause of all things, and his disappointment when it explained everything by air, aether and water instead. That frustration is the pivot of his turn from cosmology to questions of purpose and the good, making Anaxagoras the documented starting point of the Socratic project.{

What influenced Socrates

• On Nature (fragments) by Anaxagoras. On Nature (fragments) (Anaxagoras) — titan for Socrates “However, although Anaxagoras almost certainly lived in Athens during the lifetime of Socrates (born 470 BC), there is no evidence that they ever met.” (en.wikipedia.org)

Who Socrates influenced

• Plato (-427). Establishes Plato as student and successor of Socrates. “In his youth, Plato first encountered Socrates , who would become his teacher and greatest source of inspiration” (Wikipedia)
• Xenophon (-430). States Xenophon was a direct pupil of Socrates. “Xenophon was a student of Socrates.” (Wikipedia)
• Euclid of Megara (-436). Describes Euclid's connection to Socrates and founding of the Megarian school. “Euclid was a contemporary of Socrates. After Socrates's trial and death, he left Athens for the nearby town of Megara, where he founded a school, named the Megarians.” (Wikipedia)
• Aristippus (-434). Identifies Aristippus as a pupil of Socrates. “Immediate followers of Socrates were his pupils, Euclid of Megara, Aristippus, and Antisthenes, who drew differing conclusions among themselves and followed independent trajectories.” (Wikipedia)
• Antisthenes (-445). Identifies Antisthenes as a pupil of Socrates. “Immediate followers of Socrates were his pupils, Euclid of Megara, Aristippus, and Antisthenes” (Wikipedia)
• Arcesilaus (-315). Links Arcesilaus's Academic Skepticism to Socratic ignorance. “Arcesilaus, who became the head of the academy about 80 years after its founding by Plato, radically changed the academy's doctrine to what is now known as Academic Skepticism, centered on the Socratic philosophy of ignorance.” (Wikipedia)
• Al-Kindi (801). Documents transmission of Socratic thought via Al-Kindi's translations. “Plato's works on Socrates, as well as other ancient Greek literature, were translated into Arabic by early Muslim scholars such as Al-Kindi, Jabir ibn Hayyan, and the Muʿtazila.” (Wikipedia)
• Lactantius (240). Documents Christian scholarly engagement with Socrates. “works on Socrates from Christian scholars such as Lactantius, Eusebius and Augustine were maintained in the Byzantine Empire, where Socrates was studied under a Christian lens” (Wikipedia)
• Leonardo Bruni (1369). Describes Bruni's translation work on Socratic dialogues. “Leonardo Bruni translated many of Plato's Socratic dialogues, while his pupil Giannozzo Manetti authored a well-circulated book, a Life of Socrates.” (Wikipedia)
• Marsilio Ficino. States Ficino was influenced by and emulated Socrates's teaching style. “Ficino was impressed by Socrates's un-hierarchical and informal way teaching, which he tried to replicate.” (Wikipedia)
• Michel de Montaigne (1533). Describes Montaigne's engagement with and use of Socrates. “Michel de Montaigne wrote extensively on Socrates, linking him to rationalism as a counterweight to contemporary religious fanatics.” (Wikipedia)
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770). Documents Hegel's philosophical engagement with Socrates. “For Hegel, Socrates marked a turning point in the history of humankind by the introduction of the principle of free subjectivity or self-determination.” (Wikipedia)
• Søren Kierkegaard (1813). States Kierkegaard regarded Socrates as his teacher and wrote his thesis on him. “Kierkegaard paralleled his task as a philosopher to Socrates. He writes, "The only analogy I have before me is Socrates; my task is a Socratic task,” (Wikipedia)
• Aristophanes (-448). Documents Aristophanes's depiction of Socrates in his comedy. “Aristophanes's most important comedy with respect to Socrates is The Clouds, in which Socrates is a central character.” (Wikipedia)
• Jacques-Louis David. Documents David's painting depicting Socrates's death. “The Death of Socrates, by Jacques-Louis David (1787).” (Wikipedia)
• Nicolas-André Monsiau (1754). Documents a painting depicting Socrates. “The Debate of Socrates and Aspasia by Nicolas-André Monsiau.” (Wikipedia)
• François-André Vincent (1746). Documents Vincent's painting depicting Socrates's daimonion. “Alcibiades Receiving Instruction from Socrates, a 1776 painting by François-André Vincent, depicting Socrates's daimon” (Wikipedia)
• Reyer van Blommendael (1628). Documents a painting depicting Socrates and his household. “Here Socrates, his two Wives, and Alcibiades, a painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Reyer van Blommendael.” (Wikipedia)
• Théophile de Viau (1590). Describes de Viau's literary use of Socrates. “Some thinkers used Socrates to highlight and comment upon controversies of their own era, like Théophile de Viau who portrayed a Christianized Socrates accused of atheism” (Wikipedia)
• Voltaire (1694). Describes Voltaire's literary/philosophical use of Socrates. “for Voltaire, the figure of Socrates represented a reason-based theist” (Wikipedia)
• Stoics. States Stoics drew heavily on Socratic thought and method.