The Gadfly of Athens

Socrates compared himself to a gadfly — an insect that stings a lazy horse into motion. Athens was the horse, comfortable in its unexamined beliefs. Socrates stung it awake with questions that revealed how little people actually understood about the values they claimed to live by.

His method was deceptively simple. He would ask someone to define a concept — justice, courage, virtue, love. They would give a confident answer. Then Socrates would ask follow-up questions that revealed contradictions, exceptions, and hidden assumptions in the definition.