Would Socrates Survive in Todays World - Term Paper Example

 Socrates, would he survive in today’s world Introduction Socrates, a philosopher from the antiquities, is well known through his portrayals in the form of dialogues, written by his student Plato. Socrates, the real man, however, remains elusive, and thus is an enigmatic personality who continues to fascinate us with his perspectives on life and philosophy. The entire representation that we have of Socrates (the Socratic methods/elenchus, or the Socratic irony) is actually a picture conjured by his idealist student Plato, who gives us an “an idol, a master figure, for philosophy. A saint, a prophet of the 'Sun-God', a teacher condemned for his teachings as a heretic” (Cohen, 2008, 5). Scholars of various ages have interpreted Socrates in a different manner, and each interpretation speaks more about the interpreter, than of the philosopher himself. Xenophon (430 – 354 BC), a contemporary and an admirer of Socrates describes the master as a practical man who is seemingly dull in his daily interactions. Hegel (1770-1831), refers to Socrates as the ancient god Janus, whose one face reminisces the past while the other face gazes towards the future. In yet another interpretation we find that Nietzsche (1844-1900) in his book Gay Science, describes Socrates as a “mocking and love-sick monster and pied piper of Athens” (Nietzsche, 2001, 340). However it is the description, given by the master’s own favourite student Plato, that is the most enduring, and it is this interpretation that we shall examine to find out, whether Socrates with his ideals and notions, would have survived in this 21st century modern era. Discussion “An unexamined life is not worth living” declared Socrates in the 4th century BC, where he tells us that discovery of life is a self motivated process, where one will have to look inwards to do a self examination. He defied his contemporary Sophists educators, who taught philosophy in ancient Greece, for money. The basic theory that Socrates puts forward which tells us that knowledge is best gained when it is learnt from constant self examination, and so does not require any of the so called philosophical teachers. Self examination is possible, and knowledge is obtained, by the process of constantly questioning oneself. His theory of knowledge thus proclaimed that “Knowledge could not be sold like a book. It had to be discovered. Philosophy was not learning a set of answers, but the process of searching for them” (Munoz, 2003, 48). This method was heeded as a direct threat to their supremacy, by the Athenian authority and the Sophists alike, and they accused Socrates of questioning the sacred vows of their religion and thus committing heresy in the process. He was also accused of corrupting the youth and defying the rules of the Gods, and was condemned to death by drinking hemlock, a poison, in the court of King Archnon, in 399 BC. Thus, we find that Socrates was condemned by his contemporary Athenian society, for his theory of knowledge and his preference for a self examined life. Almost 2500 years after Socrates drank his cup of hemlock, in the 21st century, we now stand to admire this great philosopher for the very reasons for which he had been condemned to death. It is today, in the modern era, that we appreciate his method of gaining knowledge by the process of perpetual questioning, and his disposition to lead a self examined life. The twentieth century and the twenty first century both have seen a revival of Socrates in the educational and cultural context. ‘Socratic method’ of teaching and counselling are seen in almost all modern educational institutions, while scholars strive to find Socratic influences in the Hellenistic philosophy, and in the later period works of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. Gregory Vlastos, a scholar on Socrates, tells us that this ‘method’ is “among the greatest achievements of humanity” (Vlastos, 1971, 19-20). Unlike other philosophers, the legacy of Socrates arises from the fact that he has given us pedagogy (enlightenment) and a process; instead of defined substances or a collection of knowledge. Here we will now examine what is meant by this pedagogic process, that Socrates had put forward as a theory, and will check to see its suitability in the context of the modern life and education. The theory of knowledge or the ‘method’ of learning as put forward by Socrates, and its relevance in the context of the twenty-first century: The most important aspect in the teachings of Socrates is the process of dialectic questioning or “elenchus”. It has been exemplified in the Socrates dialogues written by Plato. This technique of questioning was mainly aimed to examine the various concepts of morality, like, truth and justice, amongst many others. Socrates applied this technique to cross examine people, and to question the basis of their beliefs or faiths on any given subject. Socrates believed that such ‘questioning’ would help people to seek the answers, and in turn would assist the seeker to re-exam his own beliefs; and if the justifications for his former beliefs are proven to be wrong, he would explore further to find the correct answer. The method ‘elenchus’ as proposed by Socrates, is a very distinct and an open process, where we start with a ‘hypothesis’ or a belief in a person. Based on this belief, the interlocutor starts questioning the person, and with each answer, the questioner and the questioned, both, explore the possibilities of the given response. Through this process Socrates (as described by Plato), in the role of an interlocutor, almost always, managed to bring out a belief from his responder, which would be in opposite polarity to the belief he had initially expressed, thus contradicting his former knowledge and assumptions. So we find that, Socrates advocated that the best possible way to solve a problem would be to break it into a series of questions, and a probe into each given answer would help the seeker to filter out the correct solution to his problem. Here we can elaborate on this process by citing an example from Gorgias, where we find that initially Callicles claims that happiness and pleasure are two different entities. When Socrates questions him, he concludes that happiness and pleasure are the one and same thing, after which Socrates was said to have commented, “Then you ruin your earlier statement, Callicles, and you can no longer properly investigate the truth with me, if you speak contrary to your opinions” (Gorgias, 1961, 495b). In the modern 21st century, this method of questioning is used in many of our scientific researches, where we find that the ‘hypothesis’ or the belief, form the first stage in the entire research process. So in a scientific method, we start with a hypothetical question, after which we undertake a series of questions, to probe our knowledge on the subject and also to comprehend the scope of our beliefs. The ‘Socratic Method’ is actually a form of negative expulsion, where we explore to negate the initial hypothesis, in order to find a better one, by filtering out those that cause contradictions. It thus helps the seeker to clear out all forms of wrong beliefs and pre-conceived notions, which tend to clutter and confuse one’s mind and reasoning. This method of breaking down, to help rebuild a stronger belief that is both correct and justified, is one of the greatest contributions by Socrates, to our modern day system of conducting a scientific research work. It shows us to re-examine our own old beliefs and, if required, to revise it, in order to come to a better conclusion. It is not always necessary that we negate our former beliefs, and the elenchus is not always aimed to strike at our basic faiths, so that we can arrive at the truth. This process in fact endeavours to create aporia, or a state of confusion, that would lead to inspiration and a state of curiosity, to seek new answers and new avenues, in order to find the truth which be free of any contradictions. It is as Robinson tells us, “The aim of the elenchus is not to switch a man from an opinion that happens to be false to an opinion that happens to be true...The aim of the elenchus is to wake men out of their dogmatic slumbers into genuine curiosity”(Robinson, in Vlastos, 1971, 90-91). So we find that the Socratic process of gaining knowledge is very much relevant in our modern day scientific research methods, and has also been seen to be the central point for the modern form of western philosophy. When we look at the philosophical beliefs of Socrates, we find that matters here tend to become a little more complex. First, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between Plato’s thoughts and Socrates’ beliefs. It is also a little vague, since Socrates believed in questioning, and when asked whether he knew the correct answer to the subject on which the dialogue was going on, he always answered “I do not speak with any pretense to knowledge, but am searching along with you” (Gorgias, 506a). He has also said repeatedly in his various dialogues that his wisdom come from his knowledge that “in respect of wisdom [he is] really worthless” (Apology, 23b). However, certain of his philosophical beliefs are discerned in his arguments with the jurors during his trial for heresy, where we find that he feels one should always focus on self development rather than searching for wealth and related material pleasures. He also believed in fostering strong community feelings and nurturing lasting bonds of friendships. A closer inspection will reveal that there are two sides of Socrates as revealed by Plato in his dialogues. In the early dialogues (like Phaedo, Charmides, and Apology), we find that Socrates is mainly concerned with his process of questioning, which he does in order to prove that the so called ‘wise men’ of Athens are in reality, not much wise and lack the knowledge they claim to have. This can be termed as the ‘moral Socrates’ (Vlastos, 1971). The other part is the ‘metaphysical’ Socrates, as seen in the middle and later dialogues, where he is more of a lecturer who is interrogating with more compulsion, often seen to take stands, and offers the ‘theory of recollection’. In these dialogues, Socrates appears keener and concentrates solely on seeking out the truth and knowledge. It is the former form, which portrays the moral Socrates, who is curious and wants to explore the world around, I feel is more relevant to the 21st century concept of education and culture. As Mortimer Adler’s Paideia proposes that the most correct form of imparting education is the “the Socratic mode of teaching, a mode of teaching called maieutic because it helps the student bring ideas to birth.” Theodore Sizer in his ‘Coalition of Essential Schools’ uses Socratic methods to teach the higher classes, while even in the field of psychology, Sigmund Freud uses the Socratic method of dialogues for psychoanalysis. Contemporary political figures like Allan Bloom (Bloom, 1987, 3) and John Stuart Mill are known to be avid followers of the Socratic methods. Thus, we find that Socrates has a huge following in the contemporary psychological, political, educational milieu. However, it is quite disheartening to note, that though widely acknowledged, especially in the field of education, that his method of inquiry can lead to attainment of wholesome knowledge, in practice, we tend to stick to our age old traditional norms of teaching. Teachers are still seen to play the pivotal role, while the students take part as mere listeners, who later learn by heart as to what has been taught in the class, and just reproduce it in the exams to obtain good marks. However, if trained properly in ‘Socratic methods’, these young minds can be processed to develop sharp critical thinking capabilities, that are necessary for playing strong political roles in the future democracy of their country. So, ‘Socratic methods’ can be used as a potential civic educational tool (Rawls, 1993), rather than turning it into an instrument for teaching morality or ethics in the class. As Nussbaum tells us ‘In order to foster a democracy that is reflective and deliberative, rather than simply a marketplace of competing interest groups, a democracy that genuinely takes thought for the common good, we must produce citizens who have the Socratic capacity to reason about their beliefs”(Nussbaum, 1997, 19). Thus we find, that with his method of perpetual questioning, where he advocates one to be always ready to carry on dialogues with others in order to seek knowledge, Socrates is indeed very much in relevance in this modern world, which lays so much stress on democracy and education. Conclusion Socrates, a well known philosopher from ancient Athens, was rejected by his own contemporary society, for heresy and corrupting the minds of the young people and was condemned to death. However, in the later years we find that his method of seeking knowledge by holding dialogues has influenced many of our contemporary scholars in the fields of education, psychology, philosophy and even political leaders. This proves beyond doubt that, Socrates is indeed very much in relevance, even 2500 years after his death. He was a visionary of his times (in fact, his ideas are more appealing to us), and his processes were far too modern, than his contemporary Athenian social heads and other Sophist scholars. Socrates, being too far ahead of his times, understandably his social contemporaries failed to grasp his thoughts and practices, and forced him to take the hemlock, and thus rid the Athenian society of a presence who was causing disturbances, and slowly becoming a threat to the supremacy of the ‘wisely’ Athenian leaders and sophist scholars. References Bloom, A. (1987). The Closing of the American Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster. Cohen, M. (2008). Philosophical tales: being an alternative history revealing the characters, the plots, and the hidden scenes that make up the True Story of Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell Pub., 5. Gorgias. (1961). Socrates, The Collected Dialogues, ed. Huntington Cairns and Edith Hamilton. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 495b. Munoz, D. (2003). The Other. Arizona: Editorial Orbis Press, 48. Nietzsche, F. (2001). The Gay Science. Transl. By Bernard Arthur Owen Williams, Josefine Nauckhoff, Adrian Del Caro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 340. Nussbaum, M. (1997).Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 19. Rawls. J. (1993). Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press. Robinson, R. 1971. “Elenchus” in Gregory Vlastos, ed., The Philosophy of Socrates. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 90-91. Vlastos, G. (1971). The Philosophy of Socrates. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 19- 20. Read More