The unexamined life is not worth living. -Socrates
How many times, upon high school success and acceptance to college, were you a victim to the phrase or the common sense idea that those who go to college will be more successful? And what about the idea of courage, were you ever reading a book and on a packet you were told to take notes with, was there a definition of courage as someone who does not stand down, but endures? What about the idea we must have love to be happy? Or that we must get a job that pays well to be happy? What about the common sense ideas of generally, what it is that makes us happy?
We are given these ideas, disguised as common sense, through the entirety of our lives. Common sense provides us with a framework to hold ideologies that might prove to be helpful or give meaning to things in our lives. But Socrates, perhaps the most influential philosopher of all time would urge us to destruct these common sense ideas by using a method of finding truth.
Socrates was a greek philosopher born to a father that was a sculptor and a mother who was a midwife. He fulfilled his duty to fight in the Peloponnesian war. He is most known for his characterization in Plato’s dialogues, but known by the whole of Athens for the way he would stop just about anyone on the street and ask them what they believed and why they believed it, thus forming a method of philosophical inquiry known as the Socratic method.
So what can this ancient old man tell us about delving into the ocean of reason? He would tell us that wisdom can be found simply by questioning common sense, and providing new definitions or better forms of it.
For example, lets look at the phrase, “To be successful, one must go to college.”
While we could break down success into many different definitions, we will say here that to be successful is to have the means to live comfortable and getting those means in a virtuous and respectable way.
We must on first glance, try to imagine a scenario where this statement is inherently false. So for this, we will take for example, Steve Jobs, who dropped out of college, yet formed the biggest tech company in existence. We could also take professional athletes, who have found success just by playing a sport really well. On a smaller scale, we can take the restaurant owners, down the street who own the most lively restaurant in town, bringing in money and community togetherness, without having spent an hour in Rhetoric and Civil Life.
So, we can infer, there is a flaw with this particular statement of common sense in that it can be disproved. So we must think now, “It is possible to be successful and not go to college.”
Thus, we should edit the earlier statement to, perhaps, “There are many ways to be successful, one of which could be going to college.”
To perhaps bring this one closer to home, lets look for a second example at, “We must be in love to be happy.”
So, let’s imagine a scenario where this ideology is false. Some of the most famous thinkers, never found love, but were extremely happy. We can think of old Arthur Schopenhauer here, the pessimist, who spent much of his energy detesting love of other human beings, while focusing all of his love on philosophy and his poodles. We can even think of the times we have had, maybe with friends and maybe with family, not particularly in love, but extremely happy and content at any moment in time.
So while there is a flaw in this statement, it is fair to assume that being in love and loving brings happiness, but it is not all that is required. So, we can alter the common sense in our own minds to say instead, “In order to be happy, we must be fulfilled. Whether it be by romantic love, love of family and friends, love of knowledge, love of nature or even love of poodles.”
While it may seem like a lot of effort to just slightly modify a common sense idea, upon practices, we can become truly talented in this area, just by using our own minds to find truth in statements we know have an error. To be wise, it doesn’t take a full education or a library of books, it takes only the ability to question blanket statements. Socrates would want us to use our own knowledge to break down everyday common sense, analyze it’s short comings, and modify it for reality. While Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” we can also be inclined to flip that and think, “A life unlived, is not worth examining.”
So question, and question all of what is around you and what is assumed because only through questioning can you ever truly know yourself.
efe5064 says
Hope,
First of all I liked your post so much as you simplified and provided the reader with comprehensible examples.
I think the Socratic method in our everyday lives should be used by everyone in order to eliminate the number of closed-minded people and form an open minded society.
I guess one of the reason why he is one of the most influential philosophers ever lived is because his inquiry is still very relevant today. Especially with the media, the society is easily shaped. One can give the example of our understanding of beauty. For the past decade, being skinny equaled being happy, girls suffering from eating disorders was quite popular. I liked how you said “modify common sense for reality”. Luckily, people started to revolt to these types of conformist ideas. Common sense is a dangerous thing that we should investigate before accepting it.
I also enjoyed this post because Socrates tells us to not only question common beliefs but this kind of inquiry lets us to stay positive. As you mentioned, “it is possible to be successful and not go to college”.
This was, by far my favorite post of yours!
-Elif
afs5387 says
As you got into the second half of your post, I couldn’t help but think about high school and learning about the Age of Reason versus the Age of Romance. Socrates was revolutionary in his way of thinking. He headed the movement in which people began to embrace to logic over emotion. Just as you said, he chose to question the ordinary rather than accept it. He realized that perhaps everything we do and believe is not truth. It makes me wonder how many things in my life I choose to accept that, perhaps, I would actually disagree with if I thought about the principle behind it. Scientists do this all the time, and it’s funny to think that the notion of questioning what we accept in everyday life perhaps originated with philosophers, rather than scientists. Another thought to close up my thoughts: Wisdom is often viewed as knowing what we do not know. If we engage with life through the Socratic Method, we begin to realize what we do not know. Thus, perhaps wisdom is simply to ask questions–to ask “Why?”.
tjw5496 says
I have often found myself questioning some of these societal ideas that you mentioned in your post. For what ever reason, society has a set ideal life that everyone should strive for in order to be successful and happy. I think it is largely due to the confusion with the fact that not having something does not mean that you are unhappy. Many people desire to go to college and fall in love, but even thought they might not achieve those tasks throughout life, success and happiness can be found in a plethora of other manners. I feel like one of the reasons that the Socratic method is so widespread and important is due to the often underestimated power of the question “why?”. The most crucial and reliable way to question and understand something in any facet of life is to fully comprehend the most fundemental causes. That is why I think that the Socratic method is used so often and has transcended the passage of time. Great post!