I recently discovered that Socrates was this guy who went around the town irritating people by asking questions. He called himself -'the gadfly of Athens' and took it upon himself to enlighten fellow Athenians by questioning them and creating a state of aporia. Socratic dialogues often ended in aporia. Aporia is a Greek word meaning being at loss or unable to answer. First, let me tell you why he did what he did. He basically wanted to prove The Oracle of Delphi wrong. The prophecy was that Socrates was the wisest of all men. So, he would go to politicians, poets, and craftsmen who claimed to have knowledge. First, he would say that he is ignorant and would love to hear what they have to say on the matter. He'll allow the person to open up and then slowly he'll start questioning the person's opinions until the person is made to realize he knows nothing. Can you imagine the horror! Well, this is known as Socratic irony where he claims of being ignorant but turns out to be the wiser one. He said -"The only true wisdom, is in knowing you know nothing".
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He was a revolutionary in the sense he questioned the traditions and customs at the time, and even the state itself. He believed in the universal subjective truth and that we should all think for ourselves, look inwards, to find it. But isn't the word subjective in itself biased? ( I think that is impossible-the universal truth part). He did not impart any knowledge, instead, he made others realize they didn't know(intellectual midwifery or maieutics as he would call it). Anyway, all this information, all we know about Socrates is from texts written by Plato, Xenophon (his students)and Aristophanes(a playwright ). Yeah, you read that right. The man didn't keep a journal. Could he be any more stupid? (In Chandler's voice).I would have liked to know him, you know, although he seems plain arrogant, lacking empathy and much more. Don't judge him so harshly you moron. For all we know, he could have been a goofball and his interlocutors must have had a bad sense of humor. Anyway, he didn't have a happy ending obviously. He was accused of corrupting the youth and defying the Gods and was sentenced to death by hemlock poison. He could have saved his life if he apologized but he didn't. He believed in an inner force that would make him do stuff and called it daimon. He believed it was his duty to follow what the guiding force said him to do which was negation most of the time (PS: he was not possessed ). You could have called it your inner voice Socrates, inner voice. Why?why?why did you do that?
It was not his duty but he did show the mirror to the society and that takes guts guys(Taaliyan👏). Also, aporia is incredible. Seldom, do people try to negate themselves? Once we reach a conclusion, we sort of cling on to it, till our last breath. Contrary to this, aporia provides for intellectual humility and that we may not need an ultimate answer, instead we can always strive for a better answer each time.' Keep questioning to learn' and 'know thyself' is what I take from him.
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