New Delhi, May 10 -- Socrates, born in Athens around 470 BCE, became one of the foundational figures of Western philosophy despite leaving no written works of his own. His ideas survive mainly through the writings of students and contemporaries, especially Plato and Xenophon. Socrates became known for questioning citizens about virtue, justice, courage, wisdom, and the good life, using a method of inquiry that later became known as the Socratic method. In 399 BCE, he was tried in Athens on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth, convicted, and sentenced to death by drinking hemlock.

"The unexamined life is not worth living."- Socrates

The quote appears in Plato's Apology, where Socrates defends his practice of questioning himself a...