For Socrates, what is called learning is nothing but recollection. When the prophetess Pythia told him that he was the wisest man in the world, Socrates was surprised: How is it possible that I am the wisest, when I know nothing? Plato once said – Believe it or not, even Socrates was a child!
In Plato’s dialogue, Phædo, Socrates told his students the following on the night before his execution: “Above the Earth are animals and men, some in the central region, others living around the air, just as we live around the sea. They live on islands around which the air revolves, they use air the way we use water, they live long, they have senses… they have temples and holy places where the gods really live, they hear their voices and get answers from them, they are aware of them and talk to them. They see the sun, moon and stars as they really are.”
Regarding Socrates and his death, his contemporaries were horrified when he did not agree to escape from prison, because in fact no one expected his death. At that time, bribing guards and escaping from prison was a common occurrence and practice that applied to the “awkward” citizens of Athens who in one way or another rose above the usual norms of behavior and average.
Numerous philosophers, poets, artists, political oppositionists, using this practice, left prison, became refugees, but preserved their lives. The prosecutors of Socrates did not really believe that Socrates would be killed, but they counted on the fact that he too would escape from prison. Even those who voted for Socrates’ death did not truly believe that he would actually die. Accepting his death and rejecting outlawry, Socrates humiliated the Athens of that time with all its mediocrity and stupidity, he clearly showed how hypocritical people are.