Khalid-Franz Correspondence
HUMAN BEING SERIES
Thursday, 9/9/99
Hello Carl,
Let me present to you my final comments on your question concerning
the "Oracle Of Delphi", with reference to
Socrates (470 - 399 BC). Let
us begin with Athens, the Alma Mater of Socrates.
Athens, The Natural Habitat of Socrates
At the zenith of its prosperity, based on the pedestal of slavery and imperial subjugation, on colonization, Athens had a population of about 160 000 citizens, 90 000 resident aliens and 80 000 slaves. It was the major manufacturing, mercantile and financial centre of Hellas. Inside its city walls, the citizens were engaged in a variety of trades and occupations; craftsmen and slaves produced goods for sale, from leatherwear to pottery; all over, merchants, ship owners, financiers, professionals were jostling artisans, mechanics, maritime workers and sailors; outside, the lower classes, especially the peasants, were growing corn, olives and grapes for wine. In the nearby hills, shepherds were tending their flocks. But, even in the countryside, rich landlords and noble families gave the small farmers, pastoralists and miners a tough time.
Four miles away, at Port Piraeus, hustling and bustling shipbuilders,
businessmen, export and import traders were
accelerating the primitive accumulation of capital, making immense
profits already. However, trade was still based mainly on moneylenders'
capital. In the nearby hills of Laurion, twenty thousand slaves mined silver,
to improve the city's revenue. This monetary economy, this cosmopolis,
was dependent on foreign food importation and on the export of its manufactured
products. All these made it a first class military, diplomatic and naval
power in the Mediterranean.
In the 4th century BC, the city-state Athens had experienced development stages, which took other parts of the ancient world centuries to acquire. The city became architecturally transformed; arts, literature and philosophy flourished. Its constitution became the most "democratic" in all Ancient Greece. Slaves, women and foreigners were excluded from political life.
The "eCircle" of Socrates
In this socio-historic setting Socrates had lived, and developed his philosophy and dialectics. In life style, he resembled the Sophists, he taught the upper-class youth, not all "human beings", and he was the centre of a circle of friends, belonging to the Athenian "high society".
However, his modus vivendi also
had other interesting aspects,
which interest us. Because the Oracle of Delphi had declared him
to be "the wisest of all men", not even Socrates believed in this divination.
He had to test it all for and by himself. Thus, he was spending most of
his time in the streets, the marketplace, and, more particularly, the gymnasia.
This angered his wife, Xanthippe. He cared very little for city affairs.
Nevertheless, as teacher, he frequented by choice the society of young
men of poets, and artisans, questioning them about their various careers,
about their moral ideas and other familiar matters.
Testing the divine statement of the Oracle, wanting to "convict" Apollo of falsehood, Socrates gained highest rhetoric and philosophic reputations in those cultural circles interested in wisdom. The Eleatics from Megara, the young pupils of Pythagoras from Thebes, and Phlious, all were fascinated by him.
Putting The Oracle Of Delphi To Shame
What he discovered was exactly that what we can verify daily, that our intellectual and academic, erudite authorities are unable to give coherent, stringent accounts of their wisdom; generally, their statements are so ambiguous, that they put the very "Oracle Of Delphi" to shame. And, it is noteworthy that the "ignorant", rustic priestesses, who were just hearing divine, "authoritarian and authoritative voices", in other words, who were still caught up in a "bicameral mind" (Julian Jaynes, 1976), not yet "conscious", expressed a higher dimension of wisdom than the intellectual creme de la creme of Ancient Greek Society. This "knowledge" certainly impressed the "inner voice", the "eudaimonía" of Socrates himself.
Like us, Socrates became aware, that, after all, he was wiser
than others, simply because he alone was conscious of his own ignorance.
However, Socrates believed in the Delphic
Oracle, he took the divination seriously enough to probe into its real
import.
Like the future European colonial missionaries, he believed himself to be charged with a divine mission in order to conscientize his countrymen, to make them aware of their chronic ignorance and of the supreme importance of divine knowledge and revelations, of what is good for the "human soul". Well, Socrates, mixed with feminine, oracular qualities, had been the first male, divine apostle. Christianity converted him into Saint Peter, into the First Pope. Like the martyr St. Peter, defending "divine truth", he was more than ready to face instant death rather than to neglect his divine commission.
Socrates and St. Peter
He was also the first Apostle of the Poor, of Poverty. A real Christian
missionary, a Roman Catholic Priest, only void of celibacy, who gave up
everything, and followed "Christ", followed Che Guevara. The poverty in
which this sacred mission had
involved him and the stark austerity which resulted, had converted
Socrates into a beggar, living from alms. Xanthippe was in no way impressed
with the pittance which he brought home.
Summer in and winter out, Socrates wore the same clothes; like the children of East Timor, the poor thing had neither shoes nor shirt. Even the Sophist Antiphon was sorry for him, he stated: "A slave who was made to live so, would run away." However, based on our own life experience, in favour of Socrates, we have to state, that this self-imposed life of hardships was the price of his mental stability, of his intellectual independence.
http:// www.socrates.crew
Certainly, again speaking of self experience in scientific and philosophic matters, many regarded him with ill will; many, who had a dolce vita, enjoying carpe diem to its extreme, thought him an officious busybody, saying that for his "misery" he himself was to be blamed, because he liked to work so hard, to philosophize. Others again wanted to be in the spotlight of philosophy, wanted to move in cultural circles; to achieve "private ends", Alcibiades and Critias, deliberately attached themselves to him, believing that to learn the rhetoric secrets of so acute a reasoner would be the best preparation for success as future magistrates in the law courts, or as "highlights" in the council, and the assembly.
Of course, Socrates had great problems with his "Crew", but he was lucky to have an inner "eCircle", of which Plato was a devoted member. Its members entered more deeply into Socrates' philosophic principles and transmitted them to the next Platonic and Aristotelian generations.
A Cock To Asclepius!
But, as it usually happens, except in the case of Plato, the members of this inner "Crew" were not, in the strictest sense of the word, "disciples", united by a common world outlook, they were more practical, more pragmatic; philosophically, they contributed very little; the decisive bond of friendly union was a common reverence for a "great man's" philosophic intellect, dialectic genius and adamant character. On the day of his death, it was mainly this group - many from states that had been enemies of Athens in the recent war - that collected around Socrates. Dying in the arms of Pythia, having been a staunch believer of the "Oracle of Delphi", and having fully verified its "divination", what was his last wish?
"Crito, I owe a cock to Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?"
Well, Carl, I owe myself a little break, a "cock in the rough".
Poor Cock!
Best regards,
Franz.