Was Socrates self educated or vice versa?

Answer 1

I'm intrigued by the possibility of the "vice versa" of self-educated. I attended public school for 12 years, but I consider myself self-educated, because my teachers were so inadequate.

In Socrates day, a formal education was largely self-directed and "teaching" consisted of teachers who asked leading questions, thus providing a base for the students to learn. See the excellent article "Socratic Method".

Answer 2

Socrates and other thinkers of ancient Greece were educated in "schools", which were generally groups of students and a teacher who led them in discussions of various questions. Socrates is famous for having rejected some of the methods of inquisition of his predecessors, but he was nonetheless educated by them. Before Socrates, there were the Sophists, who by the time of Socrates were considered to be outdated in their thinking. Socrates or one of his teachers introduced the dialectic method of inquiry, in which instead of simply arguing a point of view, one examines and critiques the merits of existing arguments, step by step, until arriving at a new understanding of the subject. It's unclear whether he truly invented the method, but he is often credited with it because it is illustrated thus in the writings of Plato, who is the source for everything we know about Socrates, but who may not have been historically accurate in his writings. In one sense, then, Socrates was self-educated, because his method promoted the idea that every individual must examine and critique ideas on their own, and therefore form independent opinions about their merit.

Answer 3

It was assumed from his later life that he attended school in Athens, but there is nothing to support that except speculation. Here is an excellent website for Socrates...it gives a brief history of his life.

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/aee501/socrates.html

Answer 4

No, Sockerteas went to the university.