Socrates if the General Consensus Journal

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His humility, focus on love and virtue, and selfless devotion in the face of persecution make him an example of "practicing what you preach" (Woods). He "embraced poverty" and refused to accept money for his "teachings" (Nails). Moreover, Socrates could be considered more "innocent and wide-eyed" than Jesus because he refused to believe that anyone had evil intentions, only that evil actions sprung from ignorance. He also believed that people were born virtuous, and therefore did not worry so much about the upbringing of his own sons.

Socrates had various other unusual beliefs that set him apart, and that he stuck by in deed as well as word. For example, he believed in the superiority of oral communication for accurately conveying information; as a result, he never authored any writings, leaving it to Plato and others to attest to the history of his philosophy.
In addition, he was highly eccentric in appearance and mannerisms, blatantly ugly and unconcerned with vanity (Nails).

To me, anyone who chooses to proclaim themselves a philosopher and teach others about their beliefs must absolutely practice what they preach. Otherwise, like a parent who tells their child to be good but then behaves immorally themselves, they lose all credibility as an authority figure. I believe the reason why Socrates is so well-known even today as the father of Western philosophy is a credit to his admirable devotion to living his own beliefs. In fact, the word "believe" means "to live by"; therefore, anyone who fails to live out their philosophy does not truly believe what they are saying. And if the philosopher himself fails to live by his teachings, why should anyone else be able to?.....

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