Genius of the Ancient World

Episode
Socrates
Broadcast Info
2015 (59 mins)
Description
In this second Episode, Bettany investigates the revolutionary ideas of Socrates. Socarate was born in Athens during a creative, yet extremely tumultuous period of Greek history.
Athens had given birth to democracy, and become a hotbed of new philosophical ideas. Socrates would become, arguably, its most vocal and charismatic thinker.
He set about scrutinizing, and working through, the key moral issues of his day. His technique, a systematic form of question and answer ‘the Socratic method’, was delivered with such a dazzling irony, that he became a celebrity in his day.
Yet, by challenging tradtion and convention, he also made enemies. Eventually he was put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced to drink deadly hemlock.
Genre
History; Philosophy and Ethics

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Genius of the Ancient World". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/219501 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)