Hello Raymond,
I can not say much about Socrates as there are few "known" facts about him. What we know about Socrates we have learned through the works of Plato. If you would like to know more about Socrates I would suggest you look towards Plato for the answers.
What I do know about Socrates is this: He lived around 470-399 BC. He was a solider. His mother was a midwife and his father was a stone worker. He was alive during the peak century in Athens. He was physically built and robust. He was sometimes thought of as the absent minded professor, he was humorous, and made it a sport to make fun of others and himself.
He refused to write anything this is why all we know of him comes from his student Plato. Socrates is known for developing the Socratic Method, which is dialectic form of questioning. He never revealed the answers to his questions.
He thought of himself as a midwife (like his mother) a midwife helps a mother care for her baby, he felt he did something similar in delivering definition to people through the act of questioning. He like Plato was mostly concerned with principles and society. This moved away from the Pre Socratics who were looking for the things that made up the world, whereas Socrates began to look at human nature. He thought the noblest possession of a man was the mind and soul. According to Socrates knowledge and virtue are "one." "He who knows what is right will do what is right" -Socrates. "An action is right if it promotes the happiness of that person." Therefore Socrates thought that an action became right or wrong if it promoted the happiness of a person. He also formulates the idea of the greater Good. For instance if a person finds pleasure in drinking, but also finds pleasure in being healthy, he might pick health over drinking because this would give him the greatest pleasure. He goes on to say that "You will truly be happy when you become a moral person." He felt that we should place values over pleasures. He also discussed the virtues of man. Whereas Plato believed that there were four Virtues: courage, prudence/foresight, temperance, and justice, Socrates only believed there to be one which is "Wisdom." He thought wisdom would lead man to what is truly good to him and what leads the soul to harmony.
We are unsure as to where Socrates dialogues began in Plato's works and were precisely they end. So I suppose the only just way to know Socrates is to know him as a character that Plato either created from his own mind or based on the mind of another.
Hope this enlightens you some. Keep your journey through thought endless.
-Platonia
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