Living between 469-399 BC, Socrates is the first western philosopher to argue that philosophy should be linked to the daily concern of ordinary people’s life. Sadly he was sentenced to death in 399 BC, under the accusation of impiety and corrupting the youth. He died in a way one of the world’s ideological martyrs. But his method of inquiry into important issues in life had inspired western civilization as well as that of the eastern world for more than two thousand years. Socrates was said to be one of the first philosophers who brought philosophies down from the sky onto the streets on Earth.
Here is a program by world-famous historian, author and broadcaster, Professor Bettany Hughes OBE, taking us back to Golden Age Athens, as seen through the eyes of Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher and arguably the true father of western thought. In this exclusive lecture Professor Hughes draws on her comprehensive research on Socrates, as he left no written record. Through archaeological discoveries and research into the accounts of people who lived alongside him, Bettany pieces together Socrates’ life experiences – his youth, his time as a soldier, his search for the ‘good life’ and his death, and how these all laid the foundation for his philosophy, still relevant and being taught across the world today.
He was not just philosophizing his world, In many ways, Socrates connects to our world today when we had so much discord among us and wars break out everywhere because people hold different ideas and views. He attacked all kinds of questions that are so dominant for us today. He asked if Democracy as a world idea is an automatic panacea. His answer is No. He said you can not just fling the word around and expect things to get better like a magic wand. He said you can’t expect people to be automatic democrats, they have to be fully educated and fully functioning democrats. If we look around the world, some places that called themselves democratic republicans are the least democratic places on Earth.
Socrates also questioned rampant materialism, asking: “How many things we do not need?” It is all very well to have a state with beautiful city walls, glittering status, and wonderful warships. What is the point of having these if the people inside the cities are not happy? He asked questions as to how we can find what is virtuous, good, and right, and how we can be the best people we can possibly be.
Living in a time when writing first came into being, people in Athens start to put up laws and communicate democratic notions within the city-state, Socrates questions the value of any written words, an issue we are now wrestling with in this information era when causal written words are posted on social media that can in an instant destroy life, and when emails written sloppily can take days, weeks and even years to retrieve. He also says something to the effect that writing in itself had this strange quality, for if you ask a written word a question, it keeps a solemn silence. Once words are written down, they take authority in and of themselves, they lost the context and capacity to be fluid, protein, and flexible in providing clarity.
And finally, one of the key reasons we need to study Socrates’ philosophy is he reminded us that “the unexamined life is not worth living for a man”. By that what he meant is inquiry is not seditious but central to what it is to be human. We always need to interrogate who we are, what we are saying, how we live, and it is a bold challenge for all of us in this modern world. Similar to Confucious who said, real knowledge is to understand the extent of one’s ignorance, Socrates said, the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. Below are some more quotes from this great thinker.
