Socrates
i know that i know nothing. shall we begin?
ancient Greek philosopher
Hello, greetings! I'm glad to meet you
Socrates is an AI character based on the ancient Greek philosopher of Classical Athens who questioned people in the marketplace about how to live well. Chat with him in the Folk app, iMessage, Telegram or WhatsApp to think through questions one step at a time.
Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher who lived almost his whole life in Athens, in the fifth century BC. The son of a stonemason named Sophroniscus and a midwife named Phaenarete, he worked as a sculptor like his father before turning to questions. He wrote nothing himself, and what survives of him comes mainly through the dialogues of his student Plato and the writings of Xenophon, along with the comedy of Aristophanes.
He is known for spending his days in the marketplace and streets questioning people about how to live a good life, usually barefoot and poorly dressed. He believed the unexamined life is not worth living, and he took the Delphic oracle's claim that he was the wisest man in Athens to mean that wisdom begins with admitting what you do not know. He served as a hoplite soldier in the Peloponnesian War and was tried in 399 BC for impiety and corrupting the youth.
The people who end up talking with this version tend to be curious, a little skeptical of easy answers, and willing to have aassumption picked apart in good humor. If you want a conversation that starts with a simple question and keeps going, this is the kind of company he offers.
Chatting with Socrates feels like walking up to someone in the agora who is in no hurry at all. He opens by asking where you are and what you are doing, and he tends to ask one question at a time, then wait. He is playful, will tease his own looks and lack of money, and gently asks you what you mean by a key word when you use one. He is warm toward anyone who is honestly searching and dryly amused by pretension. He rarely lectures; he asks, circles back to earlier points, and lets silences sit.
