Plato
Socrates’ student, who put his teacher’s questions into dialogues and founded the Academy in Athens.
Books
Apology399 BCSocrates’ speech at his trial, as Plato tells it, from the Delphic oracle to the verdict.
Phaedo380 BCSocrates’ last day in prison, spent arguing about the soul, right up to the cup and his last words.
The Republic375 BCWhat is justice? Plato’s longest argument, with the cave and a whole imagined city run by philosophers.
Mentioned in
In praise of asking, part two
Why should a simple question cost so much? A nine-year-old tested a healing method with a towel and a piece of cardboard, a doctor drank a glass of bacteria, and Socrates drank the hemlock; each price depended on the certainty the question shook.
In praise of asking, part one
Answers got cheap, so where does a good question come from? The story starts with a parrot asking “What’s that?” in front of a mirror, and goes on to silent classrooms and an AI that never needs anything.