Socrates: The Enigmatic Philosopher (Pt 1)

This is Part 1 of a three-part series on Socrates.

“All I know is that I know nothing.”

~ Socrates, a Greek philosopher

Socrates famously claimed that true wisdom can only be achieved by being aware of one’s ignorance. His belief was that people often believed themselves to be wise and knowledgeable when in reality, they were ignorant of the limitations of their knowledge. In his view, people had to challenge their own beliefs and ideological systems in order to escape from the little ‘bubbles’ of knowledge they resided in. This would be the first step towards enlightening one’s view of the world and possibly achieving ‘wisdom’.

Socrates (c. 470 BC – 399 BC) was a profound Greek philosopher who influenced a large part of the Western philosophy that we know today. Born into a family of artisans, Socrates received an education in reading and writing, living a largely affluent life. Surprisingly, while Socrates is commonly known for the myriad of philosophical ideas that he proposed and advocated for, he authored no texts during his lifetime. Instead, his students (Plato, Alcibiades, Xenophon, and Euclid) wrote of his teachings and ideas, which is how the world received access to Socrates’ philosophy. Notably, Plato’s The Apology tells Socrates’ life story, including his trial and execution.

Socrates was accused of impiety — desecration of divine objects — and corruption of the youth in Athens. Socrates’ philosophy centered around God as the origin (or giver) of true wisdom. This was contrary to the Greek gods that were worshipped as part of the state religion during the time. Socrates’ introduction of a new God was seen as impious and thus formed the basis of the accusation against him. The “centrality of religious observance and reverence for the divine” in Socrates’ philosophy is often overlooked in contemporary interpretations. For Socrates, human reason was fallible and prone to ignorance; all knowledge came from a singular God, not the Greek gods that were revered by the mainstream population. Despite Socrates’ defense of his philosophical ideas, he accepted that his death because he believed that God would never harm a good man, whether in life or death.

Due to the nature of the documentation of Socrates’ life only existing as secondary text sources, there are doubts to the veracity of some of his claims as well as potential contradictions between different accounts. Regarding the question of whether death is good or bad, Socrates tells the general assembly that no one can know if death is a blessing for a man, but then goes on to tell a friend that death bears no evil. In addition, Socrates came up with the Socratic method, Socratic ignorance, Socratic irony, and so on. Scholars dispute over why Socrates used irony in his dialogues, not knowing if it was meant to grab attention, provide access to a smaller, more ‘intellectual’ audience, or if Socrates was simply being truthful, or a mix of any of these phenomena.

Interestingly, Socrates’ lack of authorship led to the Socratic problem. Attempts at constructing an accurate depiction of Socrates’ life and his beliefs are hindered by the fact that the writings of his life by his contemporaries contradict them at times. Plato, Xenophon, Aristophanes, and Aristotle all wrote about Socrates and his school of thought. An example of a contradiction would be Plato’s account whereby Socrates denies acceptance of money in exchange for his teachings, which is the complete opposite of Xenophon’s account where Socrates relies on teaching as his livelihood. Plato often used Socrates as the main character in his texts, which makes it hard to discern whether the name Socrates represented the actual Socrates or if it was a placeholder to express Plato’s personal opinions.

This poses the conundrum of historical biography, the nicely-termed Socratic problem. Perhaps this is where Socrates’ famous quote comes in: “All I know is that I know nothing.” Can we truly say that we know Socrates and his beliefs? Or is he correct once again, that mankind will never know everything in the universe?

How much we can trust these sources is up to the hard work of historical scholars as well as the individual skepticism of a reader. Most sources agree that Socrates did exist and that he was an influential philosopher with many bright ideas. However, the enigma shrouding his life adds a nice touch to the philosophy he championed. Uncertainty and ignorance were something he believed everybody should embrace. That would be the first step in a greater understanding of the human condition.

As a wise man once said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

Sources

https://morningwalkgroup.com/2019/11/29/divine-revelation-in-the-epistemology-of-socrates/

https://medium.com/indian-thoughts/the-only-true-wisdom-is-in-knowing-you-know-nothing-5789c8994cc6

https://www.thecollector.com/all-i-know-is-that-i-know-nothing-socrates/