Simon the Shoemaker (; fl. c. late 5th century BC) was an associate of Socrates, and a 'working-philosopher'. He is known mostly from the account given in Diogenes Laërtius' Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. He is also mentioned in passing by Plutarch and Synesius; a pupil of Socrates, Phaedo of Elis, is known to have written a dialogue called Simon.
Influence
Xenophon reports that because youths were not allowed to enter the Agora, they used to gather in workshops surrounding it. Socrates frequented these shops in order to converse with the merchants, Simon being one among them. Simon committed these conversations to writing, as far as he could remember them. These were the first Socratic dialogues. Indeed, Simon’s excellence in the art of shoemaking would have been a form of expertise that Socrates, of Plato's Apology, held up as the only example of genuine knowledge.
Simon's writings attracted the notice of Pericles, who offered to provide for him if Simon would come and reside with him. The cobbler refused on the grounds that he did not wish to surrender his independence.
Postmortem
A number of later philosophers associated Simon with a certain philosophical way of life.
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In the Cataplus of Lucian, a group of dead people, including the tyrant Megapenthes, are carried to the Underworld in Charon's boat. Lucian pairs his ideal Cynic, Cyniscus, with the cobbler Micyllus, who is the only one who accepts his fate – albeit with resignation. Here, Lucian follows a literary convention of his time by pairing a Cynic with a shoemaker.
From influence of the Cynics, the Stoics drew inspiration from Simon as well. Zeno of Citium is said to have produced a collection of anecdotes about Crates. Stobaeus preserves one:
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Zeno said that Crates was sitting in a shoemaker’s shop and reading aloud Aristotle’s Protrepticus, which he had written for Themison, the Cyprian king. In it he said that no one had more advantages for being a philosopher, for he had great wealth so that he could spend money on this activity and still have his reputation intact. And Zeno said that while Crates was reading, the shoemaker was attentive but all the while kept on with his stitching. And Crates said, "It seems to me, Philiscus, that I should write a Protrepticus for you, since I see that you have more advantages for being a philosopher than the man for whom Aristotle wrote."
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Historicity
Doubt
Some scholars have suggested that Simon was a purely fictional figure. The central contention of his existence is his omission in the works of Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes – the primary sources on Socrates. Other scholars,