Socrates is a household name, and without doubt one of the greatest figures in Greek/Western philosophy alongside Plato and Aristotle. Socrates’ teachings are preserved in the accounts of Plato and Xenophon – two of his disciples. The main ‘Socratic dialogues’ , as his teachings are known, include the ‘Apology’, the ‘Phaedo’ and ‘Crito’. The ideas that Socrates explores in these dialogues are perennial and his methods of thought can be universally applied to all logical problems.
The first reason why everyone should read Socrates is because of his timeless thought and ideas. Socrates tackled not simply the greatest and most problematic questions of his day, but of all time. These include puzzles such as “what is justice?” and “what is beautiful?” We find in the dialogues that no one can really answer the questions, including Socrates in some cases. However, what he shows us is that most people don’t really know anything. Socrates famously said “The only thing I know is that I don’t know anything.” He criticised people who claimed to know things, such as when Euthyphro announced that he was pursuing a pious cause by prosecuting his own father for the murder of a slave. Socrates manages to prove that Euthyphro was not being pious because he cannot provide a definition of piety.
The second reason is that Socrates was revolutionary in his philosophical method. He pioneered the method of ‘Socratic questioning’, where repeated questions and analogies can eventually reveal the true nature of something. In the ‘Phaedo’, he manages to convince his followers that the soul exists through repeated questioning. For example, can one acquire wisdom? If yes, does wisdom originate from the body? If the body is a carnal object, prone to inaccuracy through finite senses and relies on merely physical observation, how can it possibly attain wisdom of an eternal nature, i.e. objective truth? Thus, wisdom must come separate from the body; the soul. From here, Socrates goes on to explain why death is desirable, as the soul can attain pure wisdom separate from the hindrance of the body.
Go and read Socrates!
Raphael Dokos