In the 5th century BC, when Socrates lived,
Athens provided a liberating place for people to express their opinions.
However, in this city where liberty is rooted to its core Socrates was
condemned and sentenced to death for series of accusations but mostly
consisting of “not believing in the gods of the state and introducing some
other new gods, as well as corrupting the morals of the youth”. One reason they
considered while dooming him to death could be that if they had saved the city
from Socrates, whom they saw as the originator of this idea, they would have
saved the city from a movement that was a constant element of instability,
violence, and conflict, and thus brought stability to the city. Perhaps it was
enough for the Athenians that Socrates no longer spoke (that is, he gave up
philosophizing), or that he left Athens. But he chose not to remain silent or
to leave Athens, but rather to die. Throughout the Five Dialogues and the
Republic, Socrates proposes various questions while masking himself similar to
a student that does not have knowledge concerning anything. This concept of
lack of knowledge is emphasized in the last dialogue, “Apology” where Socrates
claims that he is wiser than others merely because he knows that he doesn’t
know anything. Ensuing that he suggests that it his sacred and god-given
mission to remind everyone that they also don’t have any knowledge depicting
himself as a necessary alleged evil. This sacred mission dooms him to be
trailed and Socrates in trial says “unexamined life is not worth living for
men” (Apology 38b) alluding to his mission. In this essay, I shall analyze why
Socrates devotes the meaning of life to examining it by arguing that examining
could be the only source of virtue, and I will argue that by binding virtue to
examining others Socrates puts importance to individualism and pride's blinding
impact on people.
According to Socrates unexamined life is a life
deprived of virtue because meditating and examining life reminds them of what
they don’t know driving them to try to learn it. In Protagoras and Meno
Socrates claims that virtue cannot be taught because there can be neither
teachers of such thing nor students. Following that he proposes that our souls
have an opinion regarding virtue and in life, we are, in suitable conditions,
driven to reconcile it. This depicts the process of becoming virtuous as a very
individualistic journey where the individual can learn about virtue by trying
to reconcile it without the help of any guidance. However, this raises a problem;
how can people know the concept they think they know, and in fact do not know?
Socrates views himself as a guide for those who are blinded by their pride and
are incognizant of what they don’t know. In Meno, Socrates asks a rhetorical
question “If then, during the time he exists and is not a human being he will
have true opinions which, when stirred by questioning, become knowledge, will
not his soul have learned during all time?” (Meno 86b) conveying and
foreshadowing the idea that true opinions and knowledge form a strong alliance
tying down what he calls “recollection”. In Apology Socrates puts forward his
superior wisdom and he explains his superiority by subtly alluding to his
awareness of this connection. It is, according to him, his utmost mission to
remind those who claim to have knowledge concerning virtue that they are
ignorant. As a result, Socrates suggests that people can only recall what they
previously knew through the help of knowledge and true belief or opinion, and
such process cannot be aided from outside drawing it as an individualistic
process.
Moreover, Socrates describes the Sophists as
"deceiving, deceiving, anti-knowledge, charlatan" because they see
knowledge as a salable object and try to deceive people with various rhetorical
strategies instead of seeking wisdom. To put it in the words of Socrates: “We
are not at all wrong to call the one who buys his knowledge in bulk, travels
from city to city and sells them for money, as a great trader.” (31e) “Then it
is necessary to see him (the Sophist) as a juggler, a charlatan and a copyist.”
(27d) Socrates revealed what kind of an understanding of education he had with
this attitude towards the Sophists. From
this point of view, Socrates differs from the Sophists in that he admits that
he knows nothing against the pedantry of the Sophists. More importantly, in
Meno Socrates asserts that
“I would contend at all costs in both word and
deed as far as I could that we will be better men, braver and less idle, if we
believe that one must search for the things one does not know, rather than if
we believe that it is not possible to find out what we do not know and that we
must not look for it.” (Meno 86c)
This
piece of quotation underpins the reason why Socrates views Meletus Orators
Lycon, Anytus as less wise than him. Their pride begets their lack of awareness
driving them to believe that they have a complete understanding of what virtue
is whereas Socrates is fully cognizant of his lack of understanding. In his
apology Socrates touches upon the reasons the accusers find in reproaching
Socrates, “And whenever someone asks them, “By doing what and teaching what?”
(Apology 23d) they have nothing to say, but are ignorant. So, in order not to
seem to be at a loss, they say the things that are ready at hand against all
who philosophize. This illustrates the accusers’ corrupt concern to not appear
ignorant which blinds them to see the truth. The truth that Socrates does not
have any intention to humiliate them, his intention is pure and virtuous, he aims
to remind them that they don’t know what virtue is so that they can start their
individual journey to find what virtue is.
In conclusion, the dialogue between Socrates
and Meno started with the question of whether virtue is teachable or not and
proceeded to what virtue is, whether it is possible to teach someone something,
and if possible, how is it possible. In
this dialogue, Socrates presents his critique of the Sophists' understanding of
education. In this critique, he unveils that knowledge and true belief
reinforce the recollection of the individual and there cannot be any external
assistance in this process except for examining. Socrates undertakes this
sacred and very risky mission to examine everyone’s life by showing them their
lack of awareness caused by pride. This portrays the process of virtue as an
individualistic journey where pride should be eliminated.
Plato, A., G. G. M., & Cooper, J. M. (2002). Five
dialogues. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
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