History Repeats
By Amy E. Barr at The Lukeion Project
Socrates avoided the rules set out for him in his own society but in the most impossibly peaceful fashion. Instead of public lecturing and campaigning to reach a political post, instead of writing political plays or literary works to shift opinions, and instead of loudly aligning with one side or the other, Socrates pursued rational inquiry with others. He believed that simply getting everyone to use their brain would give birth to a better world.
Socrates was styled as an irritant, a “gad fly,” a pest because he simply talked with other people, particularly the young people of Athens who had both time and interest in debate as their world was all too turbulent. Athens, formally known for her long years of renowned philosophers, was no longer in the mood for such debates. Everyone pushed and shoved to become preeminent in trying times. Conformity was key. Critical thinking was not on their agenda.
Socrates’ friends and students would, in today’s vernacular, come from both sides of the aisle. Naturally, the military members of Athens tended to listen to him since he served in that capacity for much of his life. His father was a sculptor, and so art was Socrates’ only “formal” education. Sculpting was blue collar work. His rivals often became his best students. They came from families of both rich and poor, famous, infamous, and completely unknown. Socrates was willing and happy to debate with anyone, and he always did so respectfully.
His methods of simply talking, debating, and exchanging ideas with people, especially young people, were innovative. Not that many Athenians considered Socrates’ innovation to be a promising idea. The popular vote demanded that everyone needed to be on exactly the same page. Socrates was being disruptive and irritating. Young people needed to unquestioningly learn their places, but Socrates was busily getting them to expand their world.
Socrates would put to debate firmly held moral claims through pointed questions. Sometimes those moral claims were just new and popular, other times more traditional. His partners in debate needed to support their beliefs. Holding popular assumptions quickly fell apart while those that listened and responded to his probing questions were guided to a deeper understanding of themselves and the world as well as their moral duty. This was his whole point.
Socrates believed people held unhealthy beliefs because they lacked knowledge. Most would never look for that knowledge until they were forced to make an account for why they believed what they believed and why they acted as they did. His onlookers and debaters were primarily individuals that we would now consider college age whom much of Athens dismissed for being too young and foolish to count for much.
Athenian leaders were not amused. Socrates did not seem to support one side over the other politically even while he enjoyed all debate. Followers, usually prior resisters, would come from all walks. His personal convictions were far more important to him than anyone else’s dainty political interests. Athenian society was not in agreement. Unity with populist opinions was the highest good. Questioning was not allowed! Socrates would be stopped.
Socrates was charged with honoring non-state-approved gods and, in punishment for his tendency to debate the young, he was charged with corrupting the youth. By corruption, they simply meant it was unacceptable to ask the brightest young minds of Athens to think critically about their own long-held positions on things. In other words, he was charged with gently compelling others to examine their own lives. Socrates would not back down.
Athenian law was built on democracy! A simple vote prevailed! Socrates, now known as the principal founder of the largest percentage of modern western philosophical tradition while never writing a single thing and the framer of the Socratic method, still considered the most successful way to develop critical thinking, wisdom, and maturation of the human mind, was sentenced to death. He could have compromised and appealed the conviction, but he refused. He could have bent or flattered the jury or found protection from political elites or even escape, he didn't quit. He accepted his death.
Several weeks after his trial Socrates was given a cup of poison. He drank it even while continuing to speak calmly and clearly to a room of friends and students as an example of moral courage until his last breath.
His students would change the world. They would become famous philosophers (Plato and, in turn, Aristotle), historians (Xenophon), and politicians (Critias and Alcibiades). What Socrates began as a personal compulsion to seek truth for himself and others would change the world. Nobody even remembers the name of the jury that put him to death.
