Socrates is considered to be one of the greatest minds in human history. People often call him the "Father of Philosophy". Some even say Socrates is the ideal philosopher. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement.

Socrates is the authority figure who cannot be neglected or avoided whenever Western Philosophy is discussed and researched. In this case, many consider Socrates as the ideal philosopher. In my opinion, I agree with this statement. However, in order to answer this question, we must be clear about who Socrates is, what “ideal” means, and what a “philosopher” is. First of all, the presence of Socrates in the history of Western Philosophy marks the transition from a pre-Socratic era to a post-Socratic era. What distinguishes between the pre-Socratic philosophers and Socrates is their utilization of philosophy. The pre-Socratics started to interpret nature and its surroundings by inherent patterns, therefore, focusing more on what reality is-metaphysics. However, Socrates is what I consider to be an “applied philosopher” for his time. He successfully brought the ideas of philosophy into people’s households, discussed the ethics of how to live a good life, and applied them to real-life situations. Spectating from this perspective, Bertrand Russell may be well agreeing with this aspect, as he believes the value of philosophy is to free ourselves from personal interests but to look for the enlargement of the Self. These statements fall into similar categories in which both Socrates and Russell claim that living a good life is not possible without philosophical thinking. Secondly, the meaning of philosopher. What I have defined “philosophy” to be is a start to illustrate what a philosopher looks like. I often view philosophy as the subject which discusses patterns of the surroundings reflected through idea exchanging. Therefore, I consider a philosopher to be an individual in the statement who not only participates in idea exchanging but also whose goal is to comprehend the patterns of the world. The pre-Socratics discussed the elements of the world by observing nature, an information flow from nature to their senses or logos. Plato built a cave that not only reflected his own philosophy of the ideal forms being the most real but also thoroughly processed the enlightenment, an idea exchange within oneself who sought after the light source. Lastly, what I consider to be “ideal”. An ideal philosopher should consist of the following personalities, willing to share its knowledge or wisdom, thinking critically towards what is told, value the enrichment of oneself and most importantly, being able to spread philosophy as straightforward as possible. These are the reasons for which Socrates is considered to an ideal philosopher but not the pre-Socratics, Plato or Bertrand Russell. Socrates argued that writing is an imprisonment of the knowledge, an essential cause why Socrates used dialogues instead of recording things down. This is not denying any philosopher who has left records of writing of its thoughts, as they have performed to be much crucial for how we shape our vision of the world today. However, the Socratic method is one of the most effective ways to allow people to learn by themselves. In this process, Socrates is seeking answers from an ordinary person while the person is revalueing its standard of life as well. This form of idea exchanging on how the world is run is a reflection of what I define as philosophy. Socrates fulfills every category of being ideal, having the willingness to share, questioning the tyranny of the majority, enlarging the Self by asking further questions and allowing everyone to have a chance to learn philosophy. Books can help to people to learn, but not for those illiterates; democracy can build an influential political structure, but not for those who suffer the tyranny from a majority rule. To further conclude, Socrates loves knowledge, virtue and morality, it is philosophy that becomes ideal because of Socrates, therefore Socrates is the ideal philosopher.