" Free thinkers are dangerous? "
--- Serj Tankian
Above is one of my favorite quotes from a contemporary revolutionary writer Serj. Free thinking is considered threatening or evil (exceeding certain bounds) through out the world even in the present society (although some countries have freedom of speech ‘till certain extend…..). If we dig into the history and try to find out where it originally started, we have to travel through time all the way to Socrates during Athenian Civilization. He was the father of philosophy, or should I say the first person to think about life in more than a material or religious way.
At first I would like to explain why I chose to write about Socrates. In my History of Western Civ. class our Stoic teacher Mr. Neal Harrison, who discussed the inner issues of happenings around us and loved to pursue an intelligent conversation with the students, asked the class if anyone was from a philosophy class and could describe Socrates. There was one girl who, I can't remember her name, was taking the philosophy class stood up. She basically couldn't say a whole lot about Socrates’ thoughts or beliefs. The substance of her speech was, Socrates was a ‘bum’ who loved to hang around and asked people questions, and was disreputably careless about family life. That was her personal point of view; there's nothing wrong in it. However, it deeply hurt me during that time, and unfortunately it still does. She's a college student (probably freshmen), how could she judge Socrates like that? First of all, Socrates is not to be judged by a person who can't think rationally even to understand Socrates’ ideas. To criticize Socrates we have to learn about him and his works. Just knowing about him still doesn't give us the right to judge him, as he was one of the most talented mankind ever existed on earth. We need to be smart enough to explore his thoughts and explain if we have any remarks. He just didn't ask questions like an average talkative individual. His questions and arguments tempted people to think beyond and farther the knowledge provided by forefathers. Secondly, he had better things to do than just to raise a family. It might sound a little harsh, but great people in human history like Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, Marx, Einstein etc. never had time to maintain a happy family. They were engaged for the improvement of people and society. If they were busy nurturing their small happy house and family, when would they do something for humanity in this short life? Finally, if one choose not to contribute to anything altruistic, that doesn't necessarily make one a perfect family person. In our society how many even so called ‘happy’ family do we see? We're not doing much of anything positive with our valued lives; all we're doing is polluting nature, creating deadly weapon (hopefully God knows for who…), and breeding faster than bacteria. If we decide not to dedicate some of our lives for a better cause, does it really ensure perfect family lives? If some blinded conservative person says ‘yes’, then my next question would be, do you really believe that the people around you mostly maintaining a perfect family, or devoted to one? So, whatever Socrates did, I'm proud of him as a fellow human being. People like him existed and made us see what our potential is and how we are different from lower life forms. If still someone considers that it was a major flaw for him not to contribute to his wife or children in a material way, I prefer to be a careless philanthropic leader like him than to live an uncertain, event less, and meaningless life like an average living being.
Socrates was born around 469 B.C. about 10 years after the Persian Wars. He was executed in 399 B.C. He was born in Athens, the son of Sophroniscus, a sculptor, and Phaenarete, a midwife. He received the regular elementary education in literature, music, and gymnastics. Later he familiarized himself with the rhetoric and dialectics of the Sophists, the speculations of the Ionian philosophers, and the general culture of Periclean Athens. Socrates was married, apparently late in life, to Xanthippe. They had three children. Xenophon speaks of her high temper; there is no evidence to prove the fact. Socrates was way too devoted to spiritual world of human development to take care of his family. A housewife surely would not compromise to such unworldly behavior; so, there could be some family disputes. However, there are clear indication that his wife loved him deeply at the time of his execution. (2)
He initially started his father's trade. He wasn't too poor for all of his life as he could afford to pay for his own armor and weapon to join army. He joined Athenian army as an infantryman in the war of Potidaea in 432-430BC, Delium in 424BC, and Amphipolis in 422BC. He had spent the largest portion of life debating over important issues with the sophists and asking thoughtful questions like "…….What is the purpose of life, What are the values by which man should live? How does man perfect his character?" in the marketplace or public places. The marked poverty of his old age is said in Plato's Apology to have been caused by his preoccupation with his mission to mankind. Among his pupils the most important ones were Plato, Euclid, Aristotle (indirectly), Aristippus (who founded the Cyrenaic philosophy), Antisthenes , (the founder of the Cynic school of philosophy). "Socrates appeared as the very embodiment and guide of the higher life." --- according to great Stoics as the Greek philosopher Epictetus, the Roman philosopher Seneca the Elder, and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (2).
Socrates mainly tried to develop the perfection of human character; thus he suggests to achieve high moral excellence. "Socrates wanted to subject all human beliefs and behavior to the scrutiny of reason and in this way remove ethics from the realm of authority, tradition, dogma, superstition, and myth." (1). Although morality varies depending on the time segment or culture, Socrates believed that if a person could grow a strong sense of morality, he or she could never commit a crime. . "He believed that all vice is the result of ignorance, and that no person is willingly bad; correspondingly, virtue is knowledge, and those who know the right will act rightly.".(5) In other words, nothing bad could come out of a person as long as he had knowledge of good. Here, I had to split from this beliefs. I think lots of other elements should be considered as well as genetics, mentality, society etc. Unfortunately, human beings are not that superior as he expected them to be.
Although Socrates believed in supreme deity, he concluded that anybody could change their destiny or modify their deeds. So, he inclined to secular power over sacred power so far the question of controlling right and wrong action goes. Later "He was charged in 399BC with neglecting the gods of the state and introducing new divinities, a reference to the ‘daemonion’, or mystical inner voice, to which Socrates often referred.". If we look at Plato's "Allegory of the Cave", Socrates talked about our vision and knowledge as short sighted, and advised us to keep an open mind about the religion and beliefs "…the prison house is the world of sight, … in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort,". Thus he urges to people to be able to accept the light of wisdom "… either in public of private life must have his eye fixed.". Of course not any new idea should we follow blindly, but "… he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, of having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light.".(4)
Socrates never got involved into politics. He always obeyed the laws of the state city, though some of them he questioned to be just. During his trial in the introductory speech he announced his obedience in law "… let the speaker speak truly and the judge decide justly.". Most probably the political figures did let him get away with his freethinking for so long as his motivation was non-political. Obviously the politicians never felt safe with his influence on simple brained public, and when accusation was made against him they first tried to compromise and later unjustly executed him. (3)
If we look at the documentation of ‘Apology’ (the word apology refers to a defense of a person or institution against charges brought against that person … certainly not to be confused with being apologetic) by Plato, we get the entire picture of the trial. Besides the religious accusation, he was also charged with corrupting the morals of the young, leading them away from the principles of democracy; and he was wrongly identified with the Sophists as for some comedy directed by Aristophanes. He never compromised his beliefs even though it could easily spare his life. He could avoid death just by promising not to spread his thoughts and for keeping silence. He refused to do so, "…to do as you say would be disobedience to the God, and therefore I cannot hold my tongue… I rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live. … difficulty, my friends, is not to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death". Socrates knew the importance and seriousness of the task he was performing. He was always confident about his guiding and direction "If you think that by killing men you can prevent some one from censuring your evil lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable; the easiest and the noblest way is not to be disabling others, but to be improving yourselves.". I could make a wild guess that he was one of the rare persons on earth during that period of time who never thought that death could be evil, especially considering the fear of death in this present advanced society we live in. He never thought that death was evil, like always he had his own argument to back his belief. He strongly uttered that no evil could happen to a good person. He even refused to escape from prison as he thought he was sacrificing his life to bring light to the conservative blind thinkers. (3)
Article the third [Amendment I] of US constitution states: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." (6) One of the great constitutional rights of United States of America was derived from Socrates’ philosophy. He was first free thinker who, directly or indirectly contributed to the grand base start of human development of science, philosophy, art etc.; he even sacrificed his life for freedom of speech and freethinking. "Socrates taught that rational inquiry – questioning mind – was a priceless tool, allowing one to test opinions, weigh the merit of ideas, and alter beliefs on the basis of knowledge." (1). I wasn't aware of his beliefs until I did a through study on his life and contributions. I'm glad that I did, and surprisingly enough, we have lots of ideas in common. Of course, I don't even dare to compare myself with this great philosopher considering my advantages of human evolution, advanced society, and availability of knowledge and opportunities. According to me he was no less than a prophet, who might not have been assigned by a certain deity.
* * * This was a rough version of a formal paper I wrote for a class; of course, it was quite a bit different. I think using MLA style is kinda cheesy in personal writings. So, I sort of credited my sources in an informal way........Masud P.
Works Cited:
1. Western Civilization, by Perry, Marvin & Chase, Myrna.
Houghton Mifflin Co. NY. Sixth Edition. Page (79 – 82).2. Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia CD ROM.
Microsoft Works Suite 2000 Disc 3.3. Online ‘Apology’ by Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett.
Available at http://socrates.clarke.edu/aplg0100.htm [Speech I (17a - 18a),
Speech II (37b – 38c), Speech III (38d – 42a) ] Last updated : Nov 07, 1999.4. Online ‘Allegory of the Cave’ from Book 7 of ‘The Republic’ by Plato,
Translated by Benjamin Jowett.
Available at wysiwyg://261/http://www.oocities.org/bbauld.geo/plato.html5. Online Britannica Encyclopedia © 1999-2000 Britannica.com Inc.
Available at http://www.juno.com/guides/reference/britannica/index.html6. Online Document of Constitution and Bill of Rights. Sponsored by "Names by Net".
Available at http://constitution.by.net/uSA/BillOfRights.html
