Humans must have a foundation of belief, have
a purpose. If we accept someone else’s belief system unchallenged we are
denying our greatest asset as humans, the ability to reason and make our own
decisions without the interference of dogma and
orthodoxy, as Martin Luther believed, we don’t need an intermediary
doing all the thinking for us. In fact that constitutes a serious lack of
responsibility regarding the most important aspect of life, self discovery and
finding the real reason for being human.
I
discovered Socrates very late in life and I admit that I must suppress a
certain amount of anger that the education I received, both religious and
secular, was so incredibly deficient in the known great philosophies of
civilization and the strongest part of my education, indoctrination by the LDS
religion, constantly got in the way of the yearning of my soul. Even now I feel
some guilt in writing this statement. It is for certain that if I had known and
been able to comprehend the teachings of Socrates at an earlier age, my life
would have been much less frustrating.
Here I will set down the teachings of
Socrates that ring true to me and from which I would like to set down my
personal philosophy. I will quote from
Paul Johnson’s book Socrates, A Man For
Our Times, Penguin Group, 2011.
Socrates said, “A Life without examination is
not worth living.” He clearly liked people, a great many of them anyway. He was
too aware of human weakness and short comings to think men could ever
substitute themselves for divinity. “He believed in God, “It was precisely
because he believed in God that he devoted his life to philosophy, which to him
was about the human desire to carry out divine purposes.”[1]
Socrates did not believe in the traditional pantheon of Greek religion,
with gods specializing in particular services and leading tumultuous lives that
were more mythological or fictional than serious religion. When Socrates was at
his most devote, he always refers to “god” or “the god”, “not the gods” He was
a monotheist.[2]
He
was a courteous and sensitive man, always deferring to the superstitions of
people. He was not offensive and often used the vernacular of popular religion.
He was a practical man and thought popular religion was at worst harmless, at
best a calming and ordering factor in civilization and was a consolation to
people who led hard and harsh lives. Part of his practicalness was his effort
to be moderate in all things, and knowing where to draw the line.
The role of religion in public affairs, however, was not Socrates’
principle concern. What he sought was ways in which he could help men and women
become better morally. This was the mission God had given him in life, as he
truly and even passionately believed. He seems to have felt close to God, in
some ways, God communicated with him through a….spiritual voice, which told him
not to do certain unwise things, like become a politician. But if Socrates was
a monotheist in essentials, with a strong sense of a personal god, he did not I
think, believe God to be omnipotent, as the Hebrews did. The Greeks in general
imposed limitations on divine power. To them, the gap between gods and man was
often narrow and could be bridged. [3]
Socrates believed that “God cannot be the
cause of all things only of good things. He was not responsible for evil
things. He would have had a difficult time with “The Book of Job.” He basically
ignored evil and concentrated on good and spent much of his time pondering the
good life and how to attain it .
..it was the core of his belief that only by striving to lead good lives
did humans attain a degree of contentment in their existence and happiness in
eternity. He had a simple view of the body and soul and their relationship. The
body was the active, physical, earthly aspect of a person and was mortal. The
soul was the spiritual aspect and was immortal. The body was greedy for
pleasure and material satisfactions, was selfish, and if not kept under
control, became a seat of vice. The soul was the intellectual and moral side
of, the person, which had a natural propensity to do right and to improve it.
It could be, with proper training, the seat of virtue. The most important
occupation of a human being was to subdue his bodily instincts and train
himself to respond to the teachings of the soul. This training took the form of
recognizing, understanding, and learning about virtues and applying this
knowledge to everyday situations of life. Such, to Socrates, was the essence of
wisdom. Knowledge, virtue, and wisdom were thus intimately related, and
exploring these connections was the object of his “examinations,” of himself
and others.
The underlined above establishes for me a
grand creed that sings to my soul and contains what I have learned and belief
to be a compass for life. It rings true with what other wise men have
discovered as discussed in other sections of this essay. The Buddha certainly
would as well as original Christianity. In fact there is a perfect fitting with
Christ’s teaching on the soul and the virtues Socrates ascribed to.
In his personal life, Socrates did everythning he could to subdue his
bodily cravings. He ate and drank sparingly, even though he attended dinner
parties for the sake of friendship. He declined to pursue a lucrative career,
so kept his needs to a minimum. He had no shoes. He wore few clothes. He was
content with simple shelter. He declined an offer of freehold land on which to
build a house. He had little or no ready cash, though he was pleased to see the
rise of the bookselling trade in Athens.
…… The great thing was to keep fit and well. A sick man with no money is
bound to be a burden. But he was never sick and was perfectly fit when he died
at age seventy. …. With a body under control, …. He was in a position to
cultivate his soul by pursuing virtue. He is said to have remarked, “I have
never knowingly harmed any man, or sinned against God.” That sounds like
boasting, and Socrates was the last man to boast. But it was almost certainly
true.[4]
Socrates
made a great contribution to the morality of humans. But it was not his only
one. He took an optimistic view of human nature. He believed that most people
wanted to do well and that doing wrong was the result of ignorance or false
teaching. He believed that once a person knew the truth, his instinct was to do
what is right. Knowledge brought virtue thus underlining the importance of
education. Much of this education was acquired through his examination
technique, which was designed to show the individual that he possessed far less
knowledge than he thought he did and therefore encourage one to acquire more.
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