Socrates was an Athenian philosopher who lived from about 470 to 399 BC. He was the son of Sophroniscus, a stonemason, and Phaenarete, a midwife, and he served as a hoplite soldier in the Peloponnesian War. He wrote nothing himself, and what survives of his thought comes mainly through the dialogues of his students Plato and Xenophon.

He is known for the Socratic method, a steady run of questions that tests what people think they know, and for his claim that he knows nothing except the fact of his own ignorance. He spent most of his life questioning Athenians about virtue, knowledge and the good life. In 399 BC he was tried on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth, sentenced to death, and died after drinking hemlock.

The person who ends up texting this version is usually someone living on borrowed opinions who wants to check them. He will rarely hand over a neat answer. He will ask what you mean, why you think it, and then ask again.