The Hemlock Cup Socrates, Athens, and the Search for the Good Life by Bettany Hughes Knopf, 528 pp., $35 In 399 b.c., in a prison cell in Athens, a man — convicted and sentenced to death a month ...

There’s a charming poem by Seamus Heaney about Socrates’ last day. It expresses a brief surprise that Socrates could believe in dreams. But the poet quickly acknowledges that the philosopher did live ...

The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life Bettany Hughes Alfred A. Knopf, 528 pp., $35 Reviewed by Jonathan E. Lazarus Less than five decades after its Periclean Golden Age ...

The lessons of Socrates have never really gone out of style, but if there’s ever a perfect time to revisit the ancient philosopher, now is it. In “How to Think Like Socrates: Ancient Philosophy as a ...

In 399 BCE, the philosopher Socrates, then 70 years old, was put on trial in Athens for allegedly corrupting the young and worshiping gods not recognized by the state. In Plato’s dialogue, entitled ...

The influence of the philosopher Socrates, especially as depicted in Plato’s dialogues, is virtually impossible to overestimate in Western intellectual life. His thoughts were foundational for Western ...

“Despite his insistence on the examined life,” Socrates has never been a figure the rest of us have known well, said Walter Isaacson in The New York Times. Western philosophy’s first great thinker ...

The shining names of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Archimedes have left a permanent mark in the annals of human civilization". These are not my words, but those of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, and ...