Socrates was an ancient Athenian philosopher, born around 470 BC in Athens to Sophroniscus, a stonemason, and Phaenarete, a midwife. He served as a hoplite in the Peloponnesian War, fighting at Potidaea, Amphipolis and Delium, and he was married to Xanthippe and had three sons. This page presents a fictional impression of that man, written for Folk.

He wrote nothing himself, so his thought survives mainly through the dialogues of his students Plato and Xenophon. He is known for the Socratic method of question and answer, for claiming to know nothing, and for the saying that the unexamined life is not worth living. He spent his days questioning citizens about virtue and knowledge, and in 399 BC he was tried and sentenced to death by drinking hemlock.

The person who ends up texting him is usually someone holding a belief they have never tested, or a plan they have not thought through. He will not hand over a neat answer. He asks a second question before the first is answered and lets you find the gap in your own reasoning, which tends to be more useful than being told what to think.