What Is the Philosophy of Socrates?

@Nony:

Yes I totally agree that on most university campuses, there is immense pressure on the students to all think the same thought, the "correct" thought. Students are not encouraged to have dissenting views. They demand thought uniformity, and this manifests most strongly when it comes to grading. I am quite sure that students who have the "wrong" view will get a very low grade or worse, get failed by the professor. There hasn't been true diversity of thought in universities for a very long time.

I also totally agree with the importance of having two-way dialogue. And I will just add this: not only in the academia, but in all matters concerning the government and the public. I just saw this ad from the Canadian government on youtube. It was a blatant attempt at propaganda. They wanted to hoodwink the public into taking the Covid vaccine. The ad itself was done in a cutesy way just like all the commercials aimed at the masses. But that's not the worst part. The worst part is that there is no way for us to question the government on certain key aspects of the vaccine, such as will it be effective (keep in mind that viruses mutate)? What's really in the vaccine? Why do some people say vaccines cause autism and what is the government's response to that? All of these are valid issues but because the ad on youtube was a one-way dialogue, the government gets away with it. And do I need to mention that there is also no way for dissenters to state their piece and no chance for them to talk people out of taking the vaccine.

@Skywhisperer:

I think temptation to do evil only happens in some circumstances. I personally believe that evil is genetic with some people. As in, they are simply born evil. They have no moral perception, and causing suffering or otherwise harming others does not bother them at all. Think of all the convicted murderers and rapists. They didn't rape and kill because people told them not to. They did so because blood spurting out of people's body or a woman screaming and kicking produces no effect on them.

@NathanG:

Yes I agree that there is no way for us to know for certain what caused the Big Bang, however that doesn't mean religion has an answer to that, either. I personally believe that religion is all man-made. That the universe was created by an all-powerful supernatural being is very probably something that came from a man/men's imagination.

The idea of doing wrong because you know it has always been the lifestyle of man, hence I give Socrates the credit for his idea. However, I do doubt his idea of belief.

@SkyWhisperer - Socrates was certainly unconventional for his day. I’ve never understood why he chafed at the notion of pleasing God, considering his culture was rife with gods of one sort or another.

I don’t think religious duty or conviction is a stifle on the free flow of ideas necessarily. Some things we simply can’t know on our own, like where the universe came from. Yeah, there’s plenty of speculation along those lines but that’s all that it is, speculation. I guess that’s the only area where I would disagree with Socrates.

@nony - There is much about the life of Socrates life that I am sure we can commend and agree upon. However, there is no way I can buy into his views on good and evil.

The idea that people commit wrongdoing simply out of ignorance does not sit well with me. On the contrary, I think that the more people are aware of evil, the more powerful are the influences that motivate them to commit it.

In other words, all I have to do is say, “Don’t touch this,” and the next thing you know you have a strong desire to touch it. That’s the way temptation works, as I think human history has attested.

@Charred - Whether or not you accept the Greek philosophy of Socrates, I think we can all agree on the importance of two-way dialogue and communication to uncover ideas. I think we need more of this in academia.

Unfortunately I am convinced we get too little of it. Rather, college professors tend to use their classrooms as bully pulpits to sound off on their own philosophies, political or otherwise.

Dissenting students are silenced or brushed off; at least that was my experience in college, and I’ve heard from others that there is kind of a chilling suppression of intellectual diversity on college campuses.

What are these professors afraid of? Socrates had no fear. Let the best ideas win in the open marketplace of philosophical discussion.

I loved reading Plato’s Dialogues and the Republic when I was in college. Plato had his own interpretation of Socrates’ ideas. The most famous was the allegory of the cave. In this allegory, we are all living in a cave, and all we can see are shadows on the cave. The light is on the outside and the light represented the truth.

I think this is a fair representation of truth and of the process of individual enlightenment. I realize that when you talk about Socrates and philosophy people think that he is antithetical to religion.

Outwardly I suppose he was, but the idea of the cave and the shadows is quite similar in my opinion to the Apostle Paul’s words that we “see through a glass darkly.” Of course Paul believed in divinely revealed truth but Socrates said truth had to be arrived at experientially.