During his trial, he defended himself not by pleading for mercy or promising to behave in a more civilized way, but by speaking openly and harshly to his accusers. He explained how the philosophic life is a life which is worth dying for. Rather than shrinking back in fear of death, he boldly described how his task as a philosopher had been the task of learning how to die. Socrates' prediction concerning the growth of philosophy turned out to be accurate. For in the wake of Socrates' death came Plato, in whose writings Socrates' own ideas have been preserved.
Philosophy is now usually an acceptable part of the status quo.
And this change began, rather surprisingly, with Plato himself. Plato presented his philosophical ideas in the form of Dialogues. These books transform Socrates' habit of persistent questioning into a specific philosophical method. But on a deeper level, the significance of this new method lies in its appeal to a higher authority, reason, as the proper arbitrator of all disputes. The dialogue is carried out under the assumption that this higher authority, to which each person has equal access, is capable of imparting a deeper understanding of ultimate reality, or truth.