Why we are called Socrates. Since a time when Greek civilization and philosophy influenced the world, the idea of asking the right questions to get to the right answers (Socrates’ “Socratic Method”) has been a principle embraced in every culture and certainly ours. As a company founded on questioning the way things have been traditionally done and then finding better ways to do them, Socrates as brand seems to fit us well. From this Socratic approach, we have built essential solutions that give our customers know-how and more control over their everyday matters, whether confidently handling them themselves or saving time and hundreds if not thousands of dollars working with outside professionals. We also picked Socrates because we like to think that we run our business by a values-based philosophy: raising essential questions and providing needed answers.

ABOUT SOCRATES THE COMPANY

“Socrates delivers what users want, where they want it, in the form they want it in and for the right value. We seek to empower people to do more themselves by supplying transactionally and by subscription a credible and trusted offering of highly focused tools and services, access to advice, events and community. In a world where the Davids are on their own versus the well-resourced Goliaths, Socrates delivers trusted support and service individuals and small businesses need to confidently handle certain legal and business matters themselves.”

Early History: Dr. Arnold Goldstein, Barry Chesler and the late James Tooker founded Made E-Z in 1988 (the predecessor to Socrates Media) to meet the expanding needs of office product superstores. By the late 1990s, Made E-Z Products (formerly E-Z Legal Forms Inc.) had grown into the world’s largest consumer-branded publisher of self-help business forms, legal forms, software, books and kits. The assets of Made E-Z Products, Inc. were acquired in August, 2003, to form the foundation for Socrates Media, LLC. Immediately after the acquisition, the company was relocated to Chicago with a new management team and staff.

Socrates Today: Socrates was the first company to offer prepackaged legal forms that are valid in all fifty states. These products are regularly updated online by attorneys and editors to ensure accuracy and compliance with current laws. From an initial line of 50 forms, we now offer thousands of physical and downloadable products and services in the categories of real estate, small business, personal financial, business legal, personal legal, human resources and contractor.

Distribution: In addition to the entire line of Socrates products and services being available at Socrates.com, selected Socrates offerings are available at hundreds of online partner sites and are carried in more than 5,000 retail locations including office superstores, bookstores, stationery stores, print shops, catalogers, mass marketers and hardware retailers throughout the United States and Canada.

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ABOUT SOCRATES THE MAN

• How is his name pronounced? sok-ruh-tez (Hear it pronounced at Merriam-Webster Online.)
• When did he live? circa 470 B.C. to 399 B.C.
• Where was he born? Athens, Greece
• What is he famous for? Socrates is credited with laying the foundation for Western philosophical thought. He believed that through a dialogue of questions and answers you could eventually arrive at the truth, because probing questions would reveal unsupported assumptions and misconceptions in each response. This give-and-take became known as the “Socratic Method,” and he used it mostly to examine moral concepts.
• What else did he believe? He believed that philosophy was a proper pursuit for everyone and that self-knowledge was its starting point. The greatest source of confusion, he said, stemmed from our failure to realize how little we know about anything.
• Who were some of his students? Plato, Alcibiades, and Critias
• Did he write any books? Because Socrates believed that knowledge was a living, interactive thing and that arguing was superior to writing, he didn’t publish anything. Instead, much of what we know about him comes from the dialogues of Plato, his greatest pupil.
• Why was he the “wisest man of Greece?” When the Delphic oracle proclaimed that Socrates was the wisest man of Greece, Socrates responded, “’Tis because I alone of all the Greeks know that I know nothing.”
• What is his most famous saying?
  • “The unexamined life is not worth living” is a paraphrase of a pronouncement he made while on trial. (You can read the complete quote in The Columbia World of Quotations.)
  • “Know thyself” is often attributed to Socrates, as well as a handful of other Greek philosophers. But according to the ancient historian Plutarch, “Gnothi se auton” (“Know Thyself”) was originally inscribed on Apollo’s Oracle of Delphi temple. (See what the Delphic oracle had to say about Socrates in the next question.)
• What are some of his other quotes? The following statements are attributed to Socrates:
  • “Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires. All wars are undertaken for the acquisition of wealth; and the reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves in its service.”
  • “Our purpose in founding the city was not to make any one class in it surpassingly happy, but to make the city as a whole as happy as possible.”
  • “I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.”
  • “The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways—I to die and you to live. Which is the better, only God knows.”
• How did he die? Socrates calmly drank the hemlock poison he was given after he was convicted of, and sentenced to death for, several crimes, including atheism.
• Where can I learn more? For more on Socrates, visit the following sites: Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Philosophy Pages, The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, and History for Kids. For information on Plato and his writings, see the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. And for fun, visit The Socrates Argument Clinic.
• Are there books I can read about Socrates and his teachings? Here is a selected reading list: “The Last Days of Socrates,” by Plato; “Conversations of Socrates” by Xenophon; “Philosophy 101 by Socrates: An Introduction to Philosophy Via Plato’s Apology,” by Peter Kreeft; “On Socrates,” by Hope May; “Socrates’ Way: Seven Master Keys to Using Your Mind to the Utmost” by Ronald Gross; and “Socrates Cafe: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy,” by Christopher Phillips.