Most people, I imagine, have heard the name “Socrates.” If you ask someone to name a person with a big white beard, Socrates might come third after God and Santa Claus. Maybe fourth if you include Gandalf. And most of those people probably know he was a philosopher if nothing else.
Socrates, through his life and his student Plato (and subsequently Plato’s student Aristotle), influenced modern western thinking. His contributions to Greek philosophy became the foundation upon which western philosophy was built. Students of philosophy divide history by “pre-Socratic philosophers” like Thales and Heraclitus and everyone else who came after Socrates.
It’s important to note here that “western philosophy” has always been interpreted through the lens of white colonization, which is why most philosophers we learn about are white Europeans. We have the same issue in the west with music theory. Both are discussions for a different post and probably for someone more qualified than me to discuss it, but it’s worth keeping in mind.
Socrates left no written works behind. What we know of the man comes primarily from three sources: the Greek historian Xenophon, the playwright Aristophanes, and most notably, his student Plato, who wrote about Socrates far more than the others.
My goal here isn’t to provide a comprehensive look at the life of Socrates or to argue the historical accuracy of Plato’s dialogues. Rather, I want to focus on my favorite part of his story: The oracle at Delphi.
The oracle was believed to share prophecies given to her by the god Apollo. According to Brittanica, This Delphic medium was a woman over 50 who lived apart from her husband and dressed in a maiden’s clothes. Upon her death, a new priestess would be chosen.
The selection process is uncertain, So I’m going to assume the new oracle was chosen through an 1980’s style dance off.
His friend Chaerephon told Socrates that the oracle at Delphi declared him to be the “wisest man in Athens,” to which Socrates replied, “How can that be? I don’t know anything.”
I feel that, brother.
So, Socrates decided to prove the oracle wrong by traveling around town to find someone who had actual knowledge and wisdom, because if he found someone like that it would prove the oracle wrong. Socrates engaged in dialogues with several so-called experts in their field, asking them questions which, in the end, exposed these experts for being nothing of the sort. These people grew frustrated after a conversation with Socrates because they had been shown to not really know what they claimed to know. They didn’t know any more than Socrates did (which, by his admission, wasn’t much).
This eventually led Socrates to conclude that he was in fact the wisest man in Athens simply because “he knew he knew nothing.”
“For I was conscious that I knew practically nothing…” (Plato, Apology 22d)
Thing is, life in Athens back then wasn’t all that different from life in the United States today insofar as both have their talking heads: so-called “experts” or “influencers” who use presentation and rhetoric rather than logic and reason to sway people’s opinions. We have pundits and influencers now. Back in Athens they had sophists, who made money teaching people how to win an argument. Winning was the priority, not finding the truth. They valued presentation over substance.
Sound familiar? Welcome to America.
Socrates, as I said, traveled around the land looking for “experts” with whom to dialogue. And according to Plato’s accounts, each discussion between Socrates and a so-called expert ended with the expert leaving frustrated and exposed as not quite the expert he was touted to be.
Ultimately, after he pissed off enough people by asking questions and desiring truth over propaganda and hurting the sophists’ reputations (and their income), false charges were brought against Socrates. He was brought to trial, depicted by Plato in The Apology, where he was charged with atheism and “corruption of the youth.” He was executed by drinking a cup of hemlock.
People with money and power silencing the opposition by falsely labeling them and oftentimes murdering them isn’t merely a recent phenomenon. Power corrupts and “the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.”
Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun.
What can we learn from the story of Socrates? Among other lessons, we can learn the importance of keeping those with power in check. We must demand accountability. We must always be on guard against propaganda and rhetoric. We must value truth and virtue over selfish interests for the betterment of all of us. Questions are good. Curiosity and wonder should be encouraged.
And rocking a big white beard makes you look super smart.
Dead-Logic 