Socrates: The Curious Philosopher

Ancient Greece has turned out many brilliant philosophers whose teachings live on to this day. Of all those toga wrapped fellows, Socrates was perhaps one of the most outspoken of the lot. He was certainly one of most curious.

I may be one of the first to call Socrates “curious”, but there’s no getting away from the fact that he was a seeker. He questioned everything, such as why people formulated opinions, (especially about themselves) and why men of importance thought they were so important in the first place.

He was also curious in that he was a strange little man. Quite short and curiously ugly, even his closest friends called him “grotesque”. He almost never washed, rarely changed his clothes and walked around Athens barefooted while everyone else was sporting the latest style of sandals.

Born almost 2500 yrs ago, Socrates gave the world the inspiring gift that thinking logically can help us to be more independent, more self confident and less conformist.

He was indeed a non-conformist, but his non-conformity was based on his desire to know the truth and to challenge the pompas blowhards of his day. Socrates maintained that just because someone has a confident demeanor and dresses well, doesn’t necessarily mean that they know what they’re talking about.

Socrates was one of the first to expound upon the fact that people are like sheep, following the herd passively, fearful of breaking away from the safety of the group

Isn’t it true? Many people tend to accept that people in authority are right. It’s this assumption that Socrates wanted us to challenge by urging us to think logically and not to be dumb struck by their aura of importance.

Socrates enjoyed talking to the politicians of the day who congregated daily at the Agora – the main market and meeting place. Many of these men thought very highly of themselves, but Socrates thought most of them were fools filled with hot air who didn't know what they were taking about.

Socrates began to formulate some assumptions that would later make him famous as a great philosopher.

The first assumption he made was that everyone had the power to become a philosopher. After all, even today there isn’t a special course in “how to become a philosopher”. Well, maybe there is, but that kind of schooling wasn’t necessary according to Socrates. He believed philosophy could be discussed by everyone, not only by scholars behind the walls of a university.

Socrates said. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” This much quoted statement needs a bit of explanation. In a nutshell, it means that that everyone should know why we live the way we do; that we should quit being so lazy, stop accepting opinions that are not well thought out, examine our motives and stand by them.

He admitted that he knew little about himself and others, which gave him the freedom to ask difficult questions. Of course, he embarrassed a lot of important people in doing so and that put a big damper on his popularity with politicians and other “higher ups”.

It’s true that people, especially those in the public eye, think they can come up with a good idea without thinking too hard about it or by quoting others who also haven’t got a leg to stand on. Socrates thought this was crazy so he came up the "Socratic Method" of thought.

It works like this - Basically you come up with a ‘common sense statement’ then you hypothetically keep coming up with as many faults or exceptions to it.

For example take the statement “Marrying a rich man makes for a comfortable marriage”. Many people will agree, but if we apply Socrates’ test of logical analysis we can also say that if you hate your husband your “comfortable marriage”, is a rotten one.

The point of all this deep analysis, according to the philosopher, is that it makes you less passive and less likely to fall for things that seem logical on the surface. Of course, you may find yourself moving away from the herd of sheep, but that's a good thing. You also risk people disagreeing with you; however, since you’ve done your homework, you’ll be able to defend your thinking with logical statements. Try it out the next time you disagree with that talk radio host who has an undeniably authoritative demeanor.

The "Socratic Method" is popular with law school professors who grill their students to dissect a given hypothesis. This is a good exercise for a student of law, because if you have to defend your client in court, you’d better know what you’re talking about.

Socrates, although he lived in the “cradle” of Democracy, questioned the democratic method. He refused to accept that just because the majority supported an opinion - that made it right. He deduced that most people did not lead “an examined life” and accepted things that were not well thought out. They formed their opinions from all those people with authoritative, confident demeanors without question. He worried that even people in power were guided by committees and special interest groups; people who really didn’t know what they were taking about.

Socrates is perhaps just as, if not more famous for his death than for his philosophies. Statues and paintings by the great masters depict his final hour in which he stoically drinks the poisonous cocktail, hemlock. This much admired philosopher who lived his life with integrity, dignity and humility, was sentenced to death by a jury of at least 500 Athenian citizens for corrupting the youth of Athens and failing to respect the gods the city worshipped. In the end, Socrates maintained that he really did not “know” anything. He merely questioned everything in order to discover the truth.

Today Socrates is regarded as one of the most brilliant of all philosophers whose message lives on - Never stop learning, growing and questioning ourselves and others. Not only do we all have to power to stop being sheep, we all have the power to become philosophers.

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