Socrates: The Man and His Thought (Unabridged)

Without question the finest short biography of the world's greatest philosopher, Socrates provides us with an excellent introduction to Socratic thought. Although Socrates himself left no writings, Professor Taylor consolidates all that can be known about the life and death of Socrates through the Dialogues of Plato, Aristotle's treatises, and Xenophon's discourses.
Socrates believed that virtue is knowledge; all wickedness, he said is due to ignorance. In his teaching, Socrates sought the universal definition of virtue through particulars. Aristotle credits him with developing the inductive method. With self-knowledge as the foundation for inquiry, Socrates would save men from leading "unexamined" lives.
Taylor reveals Socrates as "the man who created the intellectual and moral tradition by which Europe has ever since lived" and "an original genius in whose character there was a unique blend of the passionate lover, the religious mystic, the eager rationalist, and the humorist."