Doctrine of Socrates

1. Knowledge is virtue

No man willingly suffers physical evil to himself without good reason. We know better than to blind ourselves or jump off a cliff or even cut off our hands. Now although actions of this kind would cause great hurt to a man, it wouldnt cause near the damage that a lie or an injustice would cause.

In the first case the body suffers but in the second case its the soul that suffers which is much more important for man

It is foolish to harm the body but it is even more foolish to harm the soul. If a man really saw things in their true light he would want to be virtuous and he would avoid evil in the same way that a man who knows that a drink is deadly poisonous will avoid that drink. Now this is what socrates meant when he said that knowledge is virtue and ignorance is vice.

Contrary to the sophists who thought that good and evil cant be known, he said that it could be known and taught and then set out to find the way to do so.

Socrates was aware of his own knowledge being incomplete so he set out to consult those members of the community who had the highest reputation for knowledge and learning.

To find what justice is he’d ask those whose business it is to dispense justice - magistrates, lawyers, lawmakers. To find out what religion is he’d ask the priests of the temples. He’d find out what beauty is from the poets and the painters. When he went to the streets of athens to ask the experts about their specialties he quickly found out that most of the people he questioned thought they knew what justice was, or democracy, or virtue, or piety, when they were pressed they couldnt give a clear answer. This explained why the oracle called socrates the wisest man in athens. At first he had thought the oracle mad a mistake since he knew the least out of all the men in athens but after he had questied the “best” authorities and found their assumption of knowledge really hid a deep ignorance, he concluded that possibly the oracle was right after all: Socrates was the wisest man in athens because he was the only one who knew that he didnt know anything.

2. The socratic irony

Someone who thinks they have all the answers isnt likely to make much of a search for the truth. Therefore the first step on the road to knowledge is the recognition of our ignorance. The determination to make people realize their lack of knowledge is the origin of what is called the socratic irony. Socrates would plead his own ignorance and ask the benefit of his hearers wisdom. The latter was usually too ready to display his superior knowledge and intelligence, but a few adroit questions from socrates were generally enough to demonstrate that his informer knew even less about the matter than socrates. Sometimes the method would reach its aim which was to clear away the rubbish of error and prejudice and to bring about the necessary humility of the serious inquirer into truth. But often it ended with socrates gaining more enemies.

3. The socratic dialectic

Socrates didnt spare anyone in his pursuit of his mission to stir people from their mental sloth. In order to lead up to more complicated problems, socrates would often start off with deceptively simple questions about everyday affairs. For example, hed ask a carpenter how to make chairs and tables, an armorer how to make a set of armor, a shoemaker how to make a pair of shoes. Socrates’ aim was to appeal to the love of the greeks for good craftsmanship. Here was something everyone understood the need of the artist to know the rules of his craft and the limitations of his materials. With this as a starting point, it might be possible to demonstrate the same need of knowledge and skill in the leading of the good life.

4. the method illustrated

A good shoemaker, harness maker, carpenter, Socrates felt, should know what he was doing To make a good set of harness you have to know what it is. To make a good pair of shoes, you have to know what a good pair of shoes is.

Can we find out what a good pair of shoes is? Do we know what a good pair of shoes is? If a shoemaker offered us a pair of shoes five sizes too small would we call them a good pair of shoes? If he offered us a pair of shoes made out of tissue paper would we call them a good pair of shoes? Suppose we want dancing slippers and he offers us hiking boots?

It does not take long to find out that what is a good pair of shoes for us need not be a good pair of shoes for somebody else; what is a good pair of shoes for one purpose is not a good pair of shoes for another. We have to take into account, then, in trying to find out what makes a good pair of shoes, such varying things as the individual for whom the shoes are intended and the purpose they are designed to fulfill.

It is not easy to give a definition of a pair of shoes, but we can recognize certain limits. We are, for example, restricted to certain materials and dimensions if we want a good pair of shoes. The limits are not easy to find, but once found they are binding on all shoe-makers. And here is a point of very great importance. Once you have discovered the marks of a good pair of shoes, you have something that is binding on all shoemakers, on all without exception.

Suppose you went into a shoe store and asked the clerk for a pair of dress shoes. The clerk hands you a stone and says, “This is the latest model shoe.” What would your reaction be? Suppose the same clerk pointed a gun at you while holding out the stone and said.

“This is the latest model shoe. Isn’t it a splendid pair of shoes?” You might answer “Yes,” but you would know and the clerk, if he were sane, would know that it is not a pair of shoes.

Notice that it is not a matter of convention or custom or tradition. Shoes are shoes and stones are stones. No one the dictator of Russia, the President of the United States, the King of England, the Pope in Rome no one can make a stone be a pair of shoes. If every newspaper and radio in the world said that a stone was a pair of shoes you would know, and the world would know, that it was not a pair of shoes. A man may be otherwise the best shoemaker in the world but he cannot make a stone be a pair of shoes.

There are, then, certain limits, certain laws, which are binding on the shoemaker, and on the carpenter and on the harness maker, and no man can transgress these limits or laws without being a poor work-man. Once more, let us recognize, there are absolutely no exceptions.

5. The art of good living

Just as an artisan has to know the laws of his craft and obey them, so too in leading the life of a human being there are certain limits or laws which must be observed if we are to lead a good life. Its not easy to find out what these laws or limits are, any more than it is to find out what is a good pair of shoes, but once we have found these laws they will be binding on all men, just as the rules of good worksmanship will be binding on all workmen.

First example: what does it mean to be courageous? Would you call a soldier courageous who instead of defending his country drops his weapons and runs away at the first suspicion of danger? Would you call a man courageous who jumps off a twenty-story building to win a ten-cent bet? Somewhere within these limits we might find what courage is and if we find it it will hold good for all men without exception.

Second example: we can find within rough limits what temperance is. A man who gets drunk every night of the year would hardly be called temperate. Nor would we call temperate a man who destroyed his health by excessive austerity. And once more the important point is that once you have found the limits they hold good for everyone without exception. No matter how powerful the man, what his talents, his authority, his achievements, if he gets drunk every night he isnt a temperate man.

The same applies for justice and the other virtues. Once find them and you have something which holds good for all men and for all times.

Now its possible for a man to stumble along blindly imitating his forebears both as a workman and in his conduct as a human being. But we would hardly call that man a good craftsman who simply imitates through habit and custom what those before him have done. A good worksman knows what hes doing and why hes doing it. He knows the rules of his craft. Similarly to lead a good life its necessary to know what a good life is. We must know the rules of good living.