osophers. And it may be that the fruitful efforts of
those minds were largely due to their unhampered intellectual freedom.
They had no "holy books" and few authorities to check their free
speculation and hence these Greek thinkers furnish the first instance of
intellectual freedom, from which arose their intelligent criticism and
speculation. "They discovered skepticism in the higher and proper
significance of the word, and this was their supreme contribution to
human thought." (_James Harvey Robinson: "The Mind In The Making."_)

We know the teachings of Socrates only through his disciple Plato, as
Socrates wrote nothing himself. From this source we gather that Socrates
firmly upheld the right and necessity of free thought. He was mainly a
moralist and reformer, and attempted to prove the existence of God by
finding evidence of design in nature. He rejected the crude religious
ideas of his nation, was opposed to anthropomorphism, but considered it
his duty to conform publicly to this belief. In his old age, he was
charged with rejecting the gods of the state, and was sentenced to
death.

The philosophy of Plato has given rise to diverse interpretations and
there are those who, on reading the Dialogues, believe that it is not
amiss to state that in certain utterances there is ground to hold that
Plato argued for the pragmatic value of a belief in God and personal
immortality; that he does not stress the truth of the matter, but argues
mainly for the benefit which the State derives from the belief; that
such theistic beliefs cannot be demonstrated, and may well be but a
craving and a hope, yet it will be of no harm to believe. He inferred
the existence of God from what he considered the intelligence and design
manifested in natural objects. Mainly, however, Plato's theism was
founded upon his doctrine of a universe of ideas, and as no one today
holds that ideas are self-existing realities, the foundation of his
theism is destroyed. James Harvey Robinson, in his "Mind in The Making,"
discusses the influence of Plato, and remarks, "Plato made terms with
the welter of things, but sought relief in the conception of supernal
models, eternal in the heavens, after which all things were imperfectly
fashioned. He confessed that he could not bear to accept a world which
was like a leaky pot or a man running at the nose. In short, he ascribed
the highest form of existence to ideals and abstractions. This was a new
and sophisticat