(470 BCE - 399 BCE)
Socrates was born around 470 BCE in a suburb of Athens. He applied his dialectic method of inquiry, known as the Socratic method, to examine moral concepts such as justice and virtue. He believed that wisdom begins with recognizing one's own ignorance. Though he wrote nothing himself, his ideas were preserved through the dialogues of his student Plato. He was sentenced to death by drinking hemlock for "corrupting the youth" of Athens.