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Socrates is one of the few truly great thinkers from whom not a single line has come down to us.
The cruelty of time, which swallowed up many masterpieces, has nothing to do with it: Socrates refused to write down his thoughts, arguing that any written text would profane the original idea. And therefore, everything that we know about Socrates has come down to us thanks to his contemporaries: the philosopher Plato, the comedian Aristophanes and the historian Xenophon. But even this reflected light is enough to feel how bright this thinker was – the one whom Bertrand Russell called “the first of European philosophers.”
Benevolent irony in communicating with students, calm clarity when presenting the most complex thoughts, adamant steadfastness in the face of death – all these features help us to see in Socrates not just an icon of Western wisdom, but a lively, intelligent and modern person. But behind the deceptive simplicity of Socrates lies the second bottom, and here it is difficult to find words more accurate than those that one of his favorite students, Alcibiades, said about him: “In fact, if you listen to Socrates, then at first his speeches seem ridiculous: they are dressed in such words and expressions that they resemble the skin of a kind of insolent satyr. But if you open them and look inside, you first see that only they are meaningful, and then that these speeches are divine and concern many issues, or rather, all that should be dealt with by someone who wants to achieve the highest nobility.
His dates
- OK. 470-469*: Socrates was born in Athens, where he lived all his life. His mother was a midwife – it was this circumstance that inspired Socrates to create the maieutics method.
- 432-429, 424, 422: participated in major battles and military campaigns during the Peloponnesian War, showing considerable courage.
- 423: married Xanthippe, future mother of his three sons. After that, he led the life of a philosopher, debating with students and passers-by right on the city streets.
- 404: refused to submit to the Council of Thirty, the elected rulers of Athens.
- 399: Accused by Anita of abandoning generally accepted religious and moral norms and corrupting youth. Sentenced to death, Socrates could have avoided it by leaving Athens, but chose to submit to the sentence. In the presence of his friends, he drank the poison of hemlock.
* All dates are in years BC. e.
Five keys to understanding
Refuse stereotypes
Before Socrates, ancient thought was dogmatic: any theory was based on a basic axiom, which imposed significant restrictions on its adherents: the entire course of their conclusions was predetermined by the original thesis. The first thinker to abandon this method of reasoning was Socrates. Having proclaimed his main principle “I only know that I know nothing”, he admitted that there are no stereotypes for him. He considered any phenomenon in the broad context of his own intellectual and sensory experience – a way of knowing the world, which has not lost its relevance to this day.
Strive for the truth
Unlike his contemporaries, the sophists, who built reasoning on rhetorical devices and the substitution of concepts, Socrates put accuracy in definitions at the forefront. In his opinion, without specifying what is at stake, it is impossible to come to the truth. A person is free in his actions and can choose any strategy of behavior, and therefore it is very important that this choice be illuminated by the light of true wisdom. Knowing the truth or being ready to comprehend it will help us not to commit evil, which, according to Socrates, does not depend on good or evil will, but is always the result of ignorance.
Know yourself
The phrase “Know thyself”, inscribed on the gates of the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, became the motto of Socrates. To know oneself, according to Socrates, means to comprehend oneself as a moral being, moreover, not only as a citizen, philosopher or, say, an artisan, but as a person in general – a unique person who nonetheless lives according to ethical laws common to all people. Refusing, unlike his predecessors, from a close study of mythology and physics, Socrates focused on the study of the inner life of a person – it is she, in his opinion, that is the basis for understanding the external world.
Achieve wisdom through love
It is human nature to desire a beautiful and spiritual life. And the purest expression of this desire is love. Only thanks to love can we realize what we lack in reality, and one step closer to the ideal. Even earthly desire is a movement towards the highest: thus, Socrates turns to the philosophy of the beautiful and frivolous Alcibiades, falling in love with him. Philosophy is also a form of love, an insatiable desire for true knowledge. By the way, it was the Socratic view of this problem that predetermined the fate of all Western philosophy: it is not wisdom in the proper sense of the word, but only “love of wisdom” (from the Greek philein – to love, sophia – wisdom).
Help others
It often seemed to Socrates’ interlocutors that he was mocking them, forcing them to doubt their knowledge. However, in reality, by forcing the interlocutor to reject stereotypes, Socrates liberates his mind, and then, by asking questions, helps to independently generate the truth (he called this method “maieutics” – “obstetrics”). It is everyone’s duty to prepare those around them to independently comprehend the essence of things, so Socrates did not take money from his students.
About it
- Alexey Losev. History of ancient aesthetics. Sophists, Socrates, Plato, Folio, Ast, 2000.
- Theohar Cassidy “Socrates”, Aletheia, 2001.