"One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing."
Sophist: Derived from sophia, which refers to one who possess wisdom. They roamed the entire Greece and self-imposed the role of teachers upon themselves. Sophists claimed to make any weaker position of thought appear stronger by using techniques of rhetoric and debate, as they aimed not to propagate a particular thinking but to make people aware of every possible existing thinking. AIMED FOR KNOWLEDGE, NOT FOR TRUTH. (Similar professionalism as that of lawyers) Two most important Sophists of the earliest times were Protagoras and Gorgias. We now know sophists as FATHER OF RELATIVISM & SUBJECTIVISM.
Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things.” It is Man who decides what is true and false. There exists no absolute truth, there is no absolute reason. What is true for you is true for you and what is true for me is true for me. The inception of this thinking was the fact that as sophists roamed around Greece where every town had their own perspective rights and wrongs. “It is equally possible to affirm or deny anything of anything.” When he was asked about his opinion on Greek Gods, he didn’t give an answer and said “The question is too complex and life is too short”.
Socrates sincerely opposed Protagoras and other Sophist as he believed that one can only manipulate truth through words but he cannot transform truth to false. WHAT IS TRUE IS TRUTH UNIVERSALLY AND CANNOT BE DENIED. Moreover, sophist thinking creates a moral problem as there doesn’t exist any difference between right and wrong. Therefore, people lose their ability to form fundamental decisions.
SOCRATES: Never wrote a word. He thought that writing is dangerous as it imprisons knowledge. He was recognised as Ironic, Courageous, Brilliant, wildly Charismatic, utterly Infuriating. The first one to materialise his words into text was Anaxagoras who brought natural philosophy in Athens. Socrates was influenced by three women (Mother, who was a midwife; Diotima of Mantinea, a priestess taught him about love; Aspasia, wife of Pericles taught him art of rhetoric). Two most important students of Socrates were: Plato & Xenophon who wrote everything currently existing about him. They both admitted that Socrates was extremely ugly in his appearance. Socrates was a stonecutter, he never taught for money which sophist did as profession. He lived a simple life and mostly bare footed. He took part in three wars as a solider for Athens and acted with extreme bravery.
He asked questions of ETHICS (what is truth, what is the meaning of our lives)
“Athens is a sluggish horse. I am the gadfly trying to sting it back to life.”
He was known as Gadfly of Athens. As Socrates was growing up, democracy too was finding its feet. All men excluding slaves and women were given power to influence the governance. Ordinary Athenians were now had the potential to determine their future but still their destiny laid with the hands of the Gods. Around half of his life was under heavy influence of visionary politician, Pericles who gathered thinkers and formed democracy as dominant ideology in Greece. Socrates was interested in the flip side of democracy, the negative aspects which it dawns upon. He asked: Is wealth a good thing? Can a democracy itself creates a just society? What is it that makes us truly happy?
He became absorbed in complex private thoughts; lost in his own mind, owing to witnessing horrors of war (poverty, hunger, cannibalism, destruction). What is piety? The only good is knowledge. He believed that studying the cosmos was a kind of diversion as studying human affairs seems far more urgent. He turned rational thoughts inward, to solve the mortal dilemmas we face. Put all his energy in knowing the depth of human existence. What kind of life should we lead? What sort of people do we want to be?
He believed everyone yearn for a full and flourished life. But it wasn’t to be found in the transitory pleasures and distraction of the material world. We can only realise our true potential when we nurture the most precious and permanent part of our beings, our souls. When we do right we protect our souls and when we do wrong we harm it.
He saw wealth as impermanent. A distraction from the search of absolute value. He marched pass the market bare footed in shabby robe saying How many things I don’t need. He believed knowledge cannot come from listening long speeches but only by dialogue. He developed what is now as "Socratic Method of Dialectics".
“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.”
He believed that every philosopher’s fundamental work is to ask. “Know Thyself”, inscribed on the walls of Temple of Apollo at Delphi had a different meaning for Socrates. It meant to ask oneself questions and to self examine; contemplation. “What I do not know I do not think I know.” “I know only one thing, that I know nothing.”
"Doubt is the origin of truth.”
Socrates worked through DIALECTICS (two + words), taken from Anaximander. It is based upon the Principle of Non-contradiction: Elimination of hypothesis at the inception of the premise through revealing internal contradiction i.e. to reach the end of the chain of causation. He portrait himself as ignorant; as being a fool and ask questions of ethics to others in a busy market place. The others will try to define the concept asked to which Socrates would find inconsistencies forcing the others to withdraw the definition and reformulate their ideas. He basically uses tool of division and separate the definition into individual parts and attack each part individually and lastly connect them to form a general concept. The end of the discussion is such that the other admits to know nothing same as that proclaimed by Socrates himself. I am not a teacher but more like a midwife who can only crystallise and nurture what is within you. The opposite of the Socratic Method is essentially being influenced by fanaticism and dogmatism. The Socratic Method was cathartic at its core.
Knowing right from wrong was fundamental to every aspect of life. Democracy has revolutionised application of law and law courts. Any male member of the society can be a judge for the day. Socrates was against the very conception of the idea that anyone is able to rule irrespective of the ability he possessed. Any innocent person can be punished upon the act of an ill abled person. He believed that the innocent person shall suffer only physically but it is the ill abled person giving judgment (judges) who would suffer much more. Upon unknowingly doing wrong, they would inflict terrible and lasting damage to their own souls. “The only evil is ignorance he said.”
Athenians at that time had their own set of ethics and morals which were inconsistent and based upon pleasing the Gods rather than living a virtuous and happy life. Greeks did believed in five virtues: Justice; Temperance; Courage; Piety; Wisdom. But in practice they were slippery and shifting ideals.
“An unexamined life is not worth living.”
Socrates thought that all virtues are interlinked and cannot be separated and confined in a single entity “knowledge of the human good”. Virtue is Knowledge. He considered soul as our most precious possession on which all our happiness is depended upon. To take care of it through our decisions based on the changing character of “knowledge of the human good” as per the context; in a battlefield, courage; in a temple, piety. The agency is upon US and not on GODS to make change in the world. He didn’t deny the existence of Gods but his emphasis on the human capacity to shape their own destiny contradicted the traditional religious beliefs. Till 431 BC his unorthodox ideas were tolerated but after Potidaea violence of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and its nemesis Sparta, Pericles was forced to order every citizen to confine within the city walls thereby making Athens a giant refugee camp. Meanwhile, a deadly wild spread disease took lives of 1/3rd of population. Pericles was eventually overthrown and later died of the plague himself.
At times of war, it was dangerous for the Athens to allow youth to independently think and form opinions on account of Socrates’s dialectics as they were crucial assets for the war. Socrates’s favourite place of interaction was Agora, a market place at the center of the city where exchange of ideas and gossips along with trade took place. It is from here, the word agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces derived. Socrates then started interacting individually with the youths at the edge of Agora as below 18s were barred from entry. He was putting into test amongst youth, the ideas of democracy favouring freedom of speech and expression by questioning Gods and the law applicable. Most notable aristocrat devotee of Socrates was Alcibiades. He was an Olympic player whose life was saved by Socrates during Potidaea war. He was intrigued by Socrates’s idea; beauty of mind is more valuable than beauty of body. He thought his beautiful body would be able to help him in such matters.
Chaerephon was a friend of Socrates who went to the sacred temple of Delphi to ask God Apollo who spoke through a priestess. He asked, “is there any man wiser than Socrates?”, she answered "No". Socrates even questioned the veracity of this incident but eventually after realising that everyone with whom he had talked lacked the knowledge they claimed, he acknowledged that he indeed is the wisest but only because “I do not pretend to know, what I don’t know”. Socrates claimed to have a guiding spirit who spoke to him in trance like episode warning him of wrong decisions. This private unorthodox spirituality was easily confused with dark magic as some uttered that he was a sorcerer. Once Socrates went to Dionysus Theatre to watch a parody of him as a play by Aristophanes named Clouds. It was similar to what now is called as “Trial by Media”, as theatre was the place were the people of Athens were educated.
Socrates’s close friend Alcibiades was chosen to lead against Sicily in a war around 415 BC, but before setting to sail someone mutilated the statutes of the Protector God Hermes. Rumoured spread accusing Alcibiades who did it as a means to bring down democracy. He was ordered to come back to Athens to face the trial of sacrilege but he vanished and ended up with the enemy Sparta. Athenians needed a scapegoat and Socrates was tainted by association. When Socrates was around his 60s, he was a presiding officer in an emotionally charged case. Six Athenian generals were failed to pick up the dead bodies of soldiers during war. Public asked them to try jointly which was refused by Socrates even upon the threat of treason. Next day he was off the case and the generals were tried and executed together at the Pynx. The entire incident was a major setback to what Socrates primarily stand for; not to act in vengeance, contrary to the traditional Greek morality which was to help your friends and punish your enemies. He was of the idea that all one can do is to take all possessions and harm physically by killing the other but one cannot harm the soul of other. But by doing wrong to someone else you are damaging your own soul thereby taking away your chance to have a virtuous and fulfilled life. Though he believed that punishment (reformative) should exist but only to purify and cure the damages they have brought upon themselves (damaged soul).
Eventually Athens was brought down to her knees as Sparta barged the city wall. Democracy was tossed and freedom was lost. Though 8 months after, democracy was reestablished but was full of suspicion and was a lot different from the prior sets. It was this time when Athenians decided to finally deal with the gadfly. In 399 BC, 70 years old Socrates was put on trial. The accusations against him was read out in Agora, first being impiety (denying Gods and introducing new ones); second, he had corrupted the young. Plato said Socrates felt like fighting for a lost cause, owing to Aristophanes’ play. He felt like he was fighting with a shadow (rumours and not actual charges) “You will persuade yourself to find me guilty”. The city who once defended the freedom of speech cannot defend freedom to offend. Judged by 500 men around the Athens, 280 found him guilty. A second vote taken on punishment, Socrates had a chance to escape the execution by proposing lesser punishment in form of exile or fine, but instead, he spoke freely and invited martyrdom. He declared he has lived his life for the benefit of the city, he deserved reward not punishment. He suggested dinner, in perpetuity, at the citizen’s expense. Socrates’s irony loses him more votes, by the count of 340. He took the news philosophically as the jury couldn’t harm his soul but have harmed their own.
Now I go to die and you to live; God only knows which is the better journey. Socrates didn’t fear what he didn’t know, including death. Plato wrote in Apology, "For the fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretence of knowing the
unknown; and no one knows whether death, which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good." Calmly he drank the hemlock poison in 399 BC.
Last Words: “Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius.”