The Greek philosopher Socrates was an amazing example of a person living the search for wisdom. He did his philosophizing orally, ∈ the company of other people. As he went about Athens questioning reputedly wise people on topics of importance and finding them not so wise after all, he insisted on pointing this fact out to them. This, as you can well imagine, did not lead to widespread popularity.
Many of the young people ∈Athens were impressed with Socrates’ razor-sharp intellect and often followed him about, imitating his style of conversation and offending even more people. In fact, Socrates and his followers angered so many prominent citizens ∈Athens that he was accused of corrupting the youth and of not believing ∈ the gods of the city.
His fate was ∈ the hands of a crowd of 501 citizen-jurists, who were to decide his fate by vote. It seems clear that if Socrates had just promised to stop philosophizing ∈ public and stirring up trouble, he’d most likely have been freed.
The verdict rendered was guilty, and the penalty was death. In those days, the accused could propose an alternative punishment. Asked what he thought he deserved for what he had done, Socrates replied that he deserved free housing and free food of the best kind, for life. He was given poison instead.
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It can be said, based on the text, that Socrates expressed himself candidly to those who were thought to be wise.
