Socrates’ Philosophy in Layman’s terms.
Socrates is often referred to as the ‘Father of the Western Philosophy’, and yet he wrote nothing, established no school, and held no particular theories of his own. What he did do, however, was persistently ask the questions that interested him, and in doing so evolved a new way of thinking, or a new way of examining what we think. This has been called the ‘Socratic’ or the ‘Dialectical’ method and it earned him a lot of fame and hate at the same time.
This article intends to present the Socratic belief system of how one should live and his philosophical views.
1. Purpose of Life.
“The life which is unexamined is not worth living”. Socrates believed that the main purpose of our life should be questioning ourselves and examining the basis of concepts we apply to ourselves ( like ‘Good’, ‘Bad’, and ‘Just’), for he believed understanding what we are, is the first task of philosophy. For instance, he believed that we should examine the real meaning of concepts like a ‘good life, ‘fair decision’, ‘just practice’, and what they really meant. What exactly constituted a good life? For him, it was achieving peace of mind rather than living according to the moral codes of society.
2. Care of the soul.
For Socrates, knowledge may also play a part in life after death. The gaining of knowledge according to him, rather than wealth or high status, is the ultimate goal of life. It is not a matter of entertainment or curiosity, it is a reason why we exist. In Phaedo (Plato’s dialogue on Socrates), Socrates says that an unexamined life leads the soul to be “confused and dizzy as if it were drunk” while the wise soul achieves stability, it's straying finally brought to an end.
3. Life in Athens as a Philosopher.
Socrates set about engaging the people of Athens in discussion on topics such as the nature of love, justice, and loyalty. His mission, misunderstood at the time as a dangerous form of Sophistry — or cleverness for the sake of it — was not to instruct the people, nor even simply to learn what they knew, but to explore the ideas that they had. It was the conversation itself, with Socrates guiding it, that provided him with insights.
4. How it gave a path to modern philosophy.
The Socratic method of examining an argument by rational discussion from a position of ignorance marked a complete change in philosophical thinking. It was the first known use of inductive argument, in which a set of premises based on experience is first established to be true, and then shown to lead to a universal truth in conclusion.
This powerful form of argument was furthered by Aristotle, and later by Francis Bacon, who used it as the starting point of his scientific method. It became, therefore, the foundation not only of Western philosophy but of all the empirical sciences.
