Socrates: The Unorthodox Father of Philosophical Debate

Image by Unknown found on azquotes.com

A Brief History on Socrates

Socrates, one of humanities greatest minds, had what some might consider an odd history. For starters, Socrates was by no means a beautiful man, having been said to more easily resemble the mythical man-beast: Satyr than a man of thirty-year in age (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018). Which, to some, this might not mean anything, but in reality, during early Athenian culture (For reference, between: 470–399 BCE) visual beauty was a mark of high importance for political figureheads as beauty, at the time, was marked by the beauty of the gods and goddess which had been sculpted during the time and made beauty equivalent to divinity (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018).

Additionally, Socrates was a bit odd-ball in his ideologies for the time, since while “any self-respecting Athenian male would prefer fame, wealth, honors, and political power to a life of labor” Socrates chose a life of poverty (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018). This choice of poverty and general vagabond status had played a large part of Socrates’ ‘teachings’, though, it is said, that Socrates never saw himself as a teacher. Since, the “image then current of teachers and students: teachers were viewed as pitchers pouring their contents into the empty cups that were the students” though Socrates preferred, what would later be known as the ‘Socratic Method’, which would require the individual speaking with Socrates to actively engage him in conversation and workout what questions they have, instead of being given the answer (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018). 

The final bit of Socrates’ unorthodox behaviors was in his regards for gender. Unlike his peers, Socrates “seemed to have a higher opinion of women than most of his companions had, speaking of “men and women,” “priests and priestesses,” and naming foreign women as his teachers: Socrates claimed to have learned rhetoric from Aspasia of Miletus, the de facto spouse of Pericles” which painted him as, once again, ‘strange’ since most women of the time, where usually uneducated and where forced to spend much of their time in their homes in isolation until they’d reached puberty (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018). To which, even still, when it came to women and the concepts of intercourse Socrates “refused the physical advances of even his favorite (Plato, Symposium 219b–d) and kept his eye on the improvement of their, and all the Athenians’, souls (Plato, Apology 30a–b)” above his own worldly-desires (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2018).  Dryads grassy

The Socratic Method of Socrates

While Socrates did not declare himself a teacher, it was undeniable that he was a scholar, which can bee seen in his influence he had on the people he spoke with. Beginning with his “greatest contribution to philosophy” which was causing intellectual/scholastic pursuits away from “physical sciences” and towards the esoteric and ethical world of abstract thought (Mark, 2019)  Additionally, a concept already mentioned, and still renowned for its usefulness even to this day, is the ‘Socratic Method’ which shakes the foundation of the interrogated persons moral/ethical beliefs by “asking continual questions until a contradiction was exposed, thus proving the fallacy of the initial assumption” (University of Chicago Law School(Garrett), 1998).

Finally, one of Socrates’ most interesting philosophies, is his belief that there is a no such thing as a “weakness of will” since everyone acts accordingly to their own virtues, even if they won’t admit it (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.).  Socrates believed this because ”once one knows what virtue is, it is impossible not to act virtuously. Anyone who fails to act virtuously does so because he incorrectly identifies virtue with something it is not” which is further indicative of Socrates’ belief in one’s actions, virtues, ideals, and so forth, being questionable and widely up to debate and further plays into the ‘Socratic Method’ (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.). 

Socrates in the Modern World

In the spirit of wrapping this up, let us take a look into what Socrates did for us, in the modern age, and how his groundbreaking way of thinking changed the very way we consider reality to this day. To which, I must add before we reach the finally, I (the author) was homeschooled, back when homeschooling meant something, so I do not have any sort of serious time in a public school outside of a couple of classes I had taken semesters ago (as of writing this) and as such will be giving my interpretation of Socrates’ influence on education from a strictly observational stand point.

Now, with all that out of the way, let us dive into to a man of philosophy, academics, and strangeness for the final time, in the modern world. From what I can see, with the little experience I have, Socrates touched the souls of not just his people, but of generations. I’ve seen what can only be called the modernistic approach to the ‘Socratic method’ used in nearly every classroom I’d observed in those few semesters ago. Though, unlike its ancient counterpart, the modern approach of asking a question to answer another, is used to teach and allow for hands-on-learning as opposed to its original intention, which was to make someone see the mistakes in their logic and question their ways of thinking.

Additionally, Socrates’ philosophy of women being capable of teaching and being educated has never been truer. With woman holding more jobs in education then men, we can see now, better then ever, that Socrates knew what women where capable of and how mighty a force woman is in the name of education and philosophical betterment.

With as knowledgeable as Socrates was and as influential as he became, it leaves one to ponder: was Socrates a genius, years ahead of his time, and a visionary misunderstood by his era? Or was he the ancient equivalent of our modern idea of the starving artist?

References:

Nails, D. (2018, February 6). Socrates. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/.

Mark, J. J. (2019, October 11). Socrates. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/socrates/.

(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.iep.utm.edu/socrates/#SH1b.

The Socratic Method. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.law.uchicago.edu/socratic-method.

Life and personality. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Socrates/Life-and-personality.

Best_Schools. (2019, February 25). 20 Major Philosophers & Their Big Ideas. Retrieved from https://thebestschools.org/magazine/major-philosopher-ideas/.