socrates's concept of the self socrates was an ancient greek philosopher considered to be the forerunner of western philosophy he was in particular a scholar teacher and philosopher who influenced countless of thinkers throughout generations his method of questioning famously known as the socratic method laid the groundwork for western systems of logic in particular and philosophy in general plato was considered to be his greatest student in fact it was plato who wrote his philosophy as is well known socrates did not write anything it was plato who systematically articulated socrates's philosophy through his famous dialogues which also chronicled socrates's life socrates was eventually accused of corrupting the youth of athens and sentenced to death by drinking hemlock he could have opted for exile but chose death instead it can be surmised that socrates used his death as a final lesson for his students to face the adversities of life calmly and squarely rather than flee like chickens and ducks when faced with storms in life socrates was fully convinced that philosophy must obtain practical results for the greater well-being of society and for socrates the very first step towards the realization of this goal is the acquisition of wisdom through knowing one's self as socrates famously said ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself so how does socrates view the self the key to understanding socrates's concept of the self is through the philosopher's take on the soul but socrates's concept of the soul should not be viewed from the vantage point of christianity that is a religious conception of the soul it is important to note that the ancient greeks lived long before the existence of christianity so that for them the concept of the soul did not have the same religious connotations that it has for us today but what does socrates actually mean by soul of course we cannot know for certain what socrates really meant by the term soul but most scholars in philosophy agreed with frederick cobblestone a famous historian of philosophy who believes that when socrates speaks of the soul the philosopher refers to a thinking and willing subject with this conception of the soul as a thinking and willing subject it is safe to assume that the soul for socrates is the intellectual and moral personality of humans so when socrates said that the soul is the essence of the human person he meant that it is the essence of humans to think and will for this reason the soul or the self for socrates is the responsible agent in knowing and acting rightly or wrongly this is because for socrates the soul is the seat of knowledge and ignorance of goodness and badness again as the seat of knowledge and ignorance of goodness and badness the soul for socrates is the essence of the human person in other words for socrates the soul is the person's true self in fact socrates said that when we turn inward in search for self-knowledge we would eventually discover our true self viewed from this vantage point the self is our inner being now because the soul or the self is the essence of the human person and because it constitutes our personality socrates urges us to take care of our soul but why should we take care of our soul according to socrates we need to take care of our soul to attain the good life as we can see this is the ultimate goal of socrates's philosophy as socrates said the human person must see to it that her life is geared towards knowledge of a good life and for socrates the good life simply means being wise and virtuous this explains why for socrates the good life is attained through the acquisition of knowledge wisdom and virtue now it is important to note that for socrates knowledge of the good life cannot be acquired exogenously but endogenously for this reason it is paramount that we devote considerable amount of attention energy and resources to making our soul as good and beautiful as possible this conviction is expressed most visibly in perhaps socrates's most famous statement the unexamined life is not worth living this gives us a clear idea of what socrates meant by knowledge in this context to know is to know oneself indeed for us to attain the good life we need to examine our life the reason for this is quite obvious virtue which for socrates is identical with knowledge is intrinsic to the human person and which can be accessed through self-examination since virtue is intrinsic to the human person socrates was convinced that the human person can discover the truth that is the truth of the good life and once the human person discovers the truth she then does what she thinks is the right thing to do thus the famous socratic dictum knowing what is right is doing what is right now if knowing what is right is doing what is right what about the problem of evil this seems to be a problem in socrates's concept of self socrates seems to think that humans were angels that once they know the right thing to do they act accordingly of course socrates was very much aware of the existence of evil in the world however for socrates those who commit evil acts are ignorant of the truth they are ignorant in the sense that they don't have an immediate realization of the good thus again examining oneself is the most important task one can undertake for it alone will give her the knowledge necessary to answer the question how one ought to live her life so the famous socratic dictum knowing what is right is doing what is right means that once the person knows herself she may then learn how to take care of it finally and contrary to the opinion of the masses one's true self according to socrates should not be identified with what one owns with one's social status reputation or even with one's body for socrates it is the state of the soul that is the person's inner being which determines the quality of one's life it's not the money fame elegant clothes nice house beautiful and expensive car or high-tech gadgets that makes life meaningful but knowledge wisdom and virtue therefore the true self for socrates is one that is lived in accordance with knowledge wisdom and virtue the true self is the virtuous self