That is why Socrates, in reply to one who reminded him to make ready for the court, said: “Do you not think my whole life is a preparation for this?”
What kind of preparation?
“I have maintained,” said he, “what is my own.”
What do you mean?
“I never did an unjust act in my private or in my public life."
“I have maintained,” said he, “what is my own.”
What do you mean?
“I never did an unjust act in my private or in my public life."
—from Epictetus, Discourses 2.2
There seems to be an unwritten rule, in both academia and in popular culture, that Socrates is owed some sort of vague reverence. We speak in hushed tones about the importance of “knowing ourselves” and the danger of “unexamined lives”, in much the same way that words like “freedom” and “democracy” are absolutely sacred in politics, though rarely will you find someone who dares to look beyond the shallow platitudes.
After all, to actually live the way Socrates asked us to live, to follow through on his teachings about virtue as the greatest human good, would fly in the face of how we reduce people to being means for profit and pleasure. In a society where production and consumption are the measures, Socrates can only be unmasked as an enemy of the state.
And so, I choose to stop playing along with the hypocrisy, and I am no longer afraid to follow Socrates unreservedly. I think of him as the grandfather of Stoicism in particular, and as a guide for all decent people in general, those who are not afraid to put character first. I should be honest about where my loyalties lie, without any interest in trying to have it both ways.
A passage like the one above, which I believe is originally from Xenophon, immediately shows how radical a Socratic attitude has to be. I waste so much of my time worrying about how I am going to impress this man, or how I am going to pay for that convenience, but if I have my head on straight, such concerns will appear trivial in contrast to the nurturing of the soul.
Why could Socrates be so carefree before his trial? Because he understood he had done nothing wrong, and that no one else could do any harm to his dignity. How did he know this? Because his whole life had been committed to mastering himself, without attempting to be a master over anyone else.
As Plato later had Socrates say, in the Republic: justice is basically learning to mind your own business. If I attend to what is properly mine, the formation of my own inner excellence, I do not need to prepare some elaborate show in order to make my case. My words and deeds are already my witnesses.
Is Socrates being cocky when he says he has wronged no one? It would only be arrogant if it weren’t true. I am sure Socrates made his mistakes, and yet there is no reason a man can’t be absolutely at peace with his conscience, for he is the only one who decides if he will act for right or for wrong.
There seems to be an unwritten rule, in both academia and in popular culture, that Socrates is owed some sort of vague reverence. We speak in hushed tones about the importance of “knowing ourselves” and the danger of “unexamined lives”, in much the same way that words like “freedom” and “democracy” are absolutely sacred in politics, though rarely will you find someone who dares to look beyond the shallow platitudes.
After all, to actually live the way Socrates asked us to live, to follow through on his teachings about virtue as the greatest human good, would fly in the face of how we reduce people to being means for profit and pleasure. In a society where production and consumption are the measures, Socrates can only be unmasked as an enemy of the state.
And so, I choose to stop playing along with the hypocrisy, and I am no longer afraid to follow Socrates unreservedly. I think of him as the grandfather of Stoicism in particular, and as a guide for all decent people in general, those who are not afraid to put character first. I should be honest about where my loyalties lie, without any interest in trying to have it both ways.
A passage like the one above, which I believe is originally from Xenophon, immediately shows how radical a Socratic attitude has to be. I waste so much of my time worrying about how I am going to impress this man, or how I am going to pay for that convenience, but if I have my head on straight, such concerns will appear trivial in contrast to the nurturing of the soul.
Why could Socrates be so carefree before his trial? Because he understood he had done nothing wrong, and that no one else could do any harm to his dignity. How did he know this? Because his whole life had been committed to mastering himself, without attempting to be a master over anyone else.
As Plato later had Socrates say, in the Republic: justice is basically learning to mind your own business. If I attend to what is properly mine, the formation of my own inner excellence, I do not need to prepare some elaborate show in order to make my case. My words and deeds are already my witnesses.
Is Socrates being cocky when he says he has wronged no one? It would only be arrogant if it weren’t true. I am sure Socrates made his mistakes, and yet there is no reason a man can’t be absolutely at peace with his conscience, for he is the only one who decides if he will act for right or for wrong.
—Reflection written in 6/2001
IMAGE: Louis Joseph Lebrun, Socrates' Address (1867)
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