Author(s): Tom Griffith (Selected with an Introduction by)

Greek Philosophy

For Socrates, as for Jesus Christ, we have few biographical details, and of these, we do have nearly all come from Plato, his greatest admirer. But it is clear that Socrates contributed three new ideas to the development of philosophy: that goodness consists not in helping friends and harming enemies, but in not harming anybody at all; that goodness and knowledge are one and the same thing; and that for progress to be made in argument, there must be step-by-step agreement between those arguing. 

The similarity with Jesus goes further. Socrates too was put to death for defying the conventions of his day, and he too sets us, by the manner of his life and his death, an example which is at the same time an inspiration and an impossible ideal.

second-hand; good as new