Notes - Socrates - Karen Armstrong

Precis notes from The Case for God by Karen Armstrong

"An unexamined life is not worth living!" Socrates. 

Socrates did not commit any of his teachings to writing, so we rely on the writings of his pupil Plato (circa 427 - 347). Socrates preferred oral teaching when matters could be discussed and points challenged. He did not like fixed or stridently held opinions. 

Socrates sought not only to inform but also to create in the minds of his students a profound psychological change. Wisdom was an insight not an amassing information. He said he had no interest in teaching people anything because he knew nothing. His students did not come to learn anything but to have an experience and a radical change of mind. His dialogues were a spiritual exercise. Socrates was primarily interested in goodness which, like Confucius, he refused to define. 

Instead of analysing and talking about virtue, he wanted to live a virtuous life! When asked for a definition of justice, he replied “instead of speaking it make it an act of life”. This was only possible because Socrates was authentic and his mission was to awaken genuine self knowledge. Those who came to talk to him were involved in a dialectic of rigourous discipline designed to expose false beliefs,  consequently a conversation with Socrates could be disturbing. He forced students to submit to answering questions concerning their present manner of life and the life they have lived, and he would only discuss subjects that they felt comfortable with. 

 

The dialectic was a conversion, a turning around of ideas and beliefs. A person would discover things about themselves that they previously did not know. They would discover a new self based on doubt rather than certainty. It was not aggressive or an attempt to invalidate the opponent’s viewpoint. It was an initiation. Plato used the language of the mysteries to describe its affect on people. Socrates was like his mother, a midwife. His task was to help others to an ecstasis for learning. Conversations were taken beyond themselves to respond honestly and generously, thereby becoming a philosopher. 

To long for wisdom in a relentless search makes you a philosopher! He did not care about money or advancement, and was not concerned about his own safety. He describes in the symposium that the quest for wisdom is a love affair that grasps the seekers until they achieved an Ekstasis, an ascent, stage by stage to a higher state of being where the knowledge of beauty goes beyond everything to an absolute, pure, unique and eternal Nirvana. 

Wisdom transforms the philosopher so that a measure of divinity is achieved. Socrates might have been as ugly as a satir but he did not need a musical instrument because his words struck people to their depths, their heart leaping in their chest and tears streaming down their face. Socrates filled those he spoke to with a frenzy of the mysteries of Dionysius, they felt unhinged and on the brink of ecstasy, so bright and beautiful, so utterly amazing that they no longer had a choice but to do whatever he told them.

Before he drank the hemlock, he washed his body to spare the women, thanked the jailer courteously, and made jokes about his predicament. Instead of destructive and consuming rage, there was a quiet receptive peace. He looked death calmly and asked that no one grieve for him but lovingly accept the situation. 

Plato regarded philosophy as apprenticeship for death or training for dying. Philosophers fear death least of all men as they give careful attention to their behaviour as if each moment was their last.