Socrates

About Socrates

Socrates, the classical Greek philosopher from Athens (-470 to -399), is ranked by MIT’s Pantheon project as the 24th most historically important figure globally. His enduring significance stems from his foundational role in Western philosophy, primarily through the Socratic method—a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions. While Plato recorded his dialogues, Socrates himself wrote nothing, yet his influence on ethics, epistemology, and logic remains unparalleled.

For a figure of this magnitude, modern internet attention is relatively moderate. Socrates accrued approximately 1.7 million annualized Wikipedia pageviews in 2025. This places his attention gap at roughly 1x, suggesting a near-expected level of current cultural visibility relative to his historical weight. Interestingly, this view count is significantly less than that of Julius Caesar (#32 importance) who garnered 3.4 million views, despite being ranked slightly lower in historical importance by the HPI.

The data does indicate a slight cooling of interest, with a year-over-year view decrease of 8.4% and a Q1 vs. Q3 momentum drop of 3%, suggesting that even foundational historical thinkers face challenges maintaining peak digital engagement in the contemporary landscape.