before Socrates most often asked questions of cosmic import that were not directly related to daily life. Those philosophers who came before Socrates, cleverly known as the Presocratics, seem to have been concerned mostly about the nature of the universe in which we live, and less about how best to live in it. And they came up with some pretty wild answers, as the following samples indicate:
Thales: Everything is made out of water.
Anaximander: Everything is made out of The Boundless.
Anaximenes: Everything is made out of air.
Heraclitus: Everything is always changing.
Pythagoras: Everything is made of numbers, and you shouldn’t eat beans because they’ll do a real number on you.
Parmenides: Nothing ever really changes, and appearance in the physical world is always illusion.
These thinkers sought an understanding of the broader universe. And they engaged in remarkable feats of intellectual discovery, not always involving such strange-sounding conclusions. In a sense, they were doing scientific cosmology without having yet developed the technical equipment and method necessary to explore and uncover the physical secrets of the natural world. And yet much of what they did launched the process of intellectual inquiry that led eventually to the rise of modern science.
But the philosophy that began in earnest in ancient Greece with Socrates and Plato and Aristotle — the focus on wisdom we can also find in the writings of Confucius, Lao Tsu, and many other ancient Eastern thinkers — resulted in the tradition of philosophical inquiry that we follow today, a tradition that seeks, at its best, both depth and usefulness in matters concerning our lives.
Embarking on the Socratic Quest for Wisdom
Socrates was a pretty amazing example of a person living the search for wisdom. He didn’t write books or leave behind any manuscripts of his own to codify or pass on his thoughts. He did his philosophizing orally, thinking aloud by talking in the company of other people — and not always with people who were enjoying the journey with him. As he went about Athens questioning the reputedly wise on topics of importance and finding them not to be so wise after all, he insisted on pointing this fact out to them. And this habit, as you can well imagine, did not lead to widespread popularity.
Many of the young people in Athens were impressed with the man’s razor-sharp intellect and often followed him about, imitating his probing style of conversation and offending even more people. In fact, by the age of 70, Socrates (and his followers) had angered so many prominent citizens in Athens that he was accused and tried on the two fabricated charges of corrupting the youth and of not believing in the gods of the city but following other gods instead. Some powerful people just wanted to get rid of him. But despite their efforts, he has managed to be with us still.
Plato provides a riveting report about the trial of Socrates. His life was in the hands of a crowd of 501 citizen-jurists, who were to weigh the evidence and decide his fate by vote. From what we know, it seems clear that if Socrates had just promised to stop philosophizing in public and stirring up trouble, he’d most likely have been freed. In his speech to the jurists, he considered this possibility and said that if that offer were made, give up philosophy and go free, his response would be simple. His words ring through the centuries. He referred to the divine inner voice he believed guided his work, and explained that his reply would be as follows:
Gentlemen of the jury, I am grateful and I am your friend, but I will obey the god rather than you, and as long as I draw breath and am able, I shall never cease to practice philosophy, to exhort you, and in my usual way to point out to any of you whom I happen to meet: Good Sir, you are an Athenian, a citizen of the greatest city with the greatest reputation for both wisdom and power; are you not ashamed of your eagerness to possess as much wealth, reputation, and honors as possible, while you do not care for nor give thought to wisdom or truth, or the best possible state of your soul?
He went on to say:
Then, if one of you disputes and says he does care, I shall not let him go at once or leave him, but I shall question him, examine him and test him, and if I do not think he has attained the goodness he says he has, I shall reproach him because he attaches little importance to the most important things and greater importance to inferior things. I shall treat in this way anyone I happen to meet, young and old, citizen and stranger, and more so the citizens because you are more kindred to me. Be sure that this is what the god orders me to do, and I think there is no greater blessing for the city than my service to the god. For I go around doing nothing but persuading both young and old among you not to care for your body or your wealth in preference to, or as strongly as for the best possible state of your soul, but I say to you: “Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence brings about wealth and all other public and private blessings for men.”
The jury verdict rendered after this speech was guilty. The penalty the prosecutor proposed was an extreme one: death. By trial procedures in that day, the accused could suggest an alternative punishment. If the offer was viewed as reasonable at all, as for example a suggestion of exile, the jury would almost certainly have preferred it over this maximal sentence. Asked what he thought he deserved for what he had done, Socrates pondered it a bit and replied that he deserved free housing and free food of the best kind, like what the Olympic athletes received, for the rest of his life.
He was actually given free food and housing for the rest of his life, which then turned out to be a short time in a prison cell, followed by the administration of a fatal poison. He might have benefited from the advice of Lord Chesterfield, who once said, “Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.”
Wisdom is worth the pursuit. Yet, despite its enormous relevance in helping us to live good lives, nothing may be as rare in the modern world as true wisdom.
Former U.S. president Calvin Coolidge once remarked that, “Some people are suffering from lack of work, some from lack of water, many more from lack of wisdom.” And one can make the same point even more strongly today.
Although it’s sometimes considered nothing more than enhanced common sense, nothing may be less common in our time than real wisdom. We should seek to increase whatever amount we already have, adding to it as much as we can by exploring all the ultimate issues most fundamental to our understanding of life and our place in the world.
As you explore the series of philosophical questions that are raised throughout this book, you do best to keep an eye on issues of depth and practicality at each turn. You need wisdom for the journey you’re now on. And you should never settle for less.
