Blogpost 3: Socra Tease

Philosophy of the shiny head

The Greek Civilization is one of the most remarkable civilizations in History, a Culture this ancient has laid the foundations for Science, Philosophy, Politics..."colorfulness" etc. It was the Greek civilization that sparked the curiosity of our species to find out what are we here for? And why the hell do we even exist? The Greeks have garnered a long list of philosophers who started their endless quest to find out the truth to our humanity but none of them have ever struck the world any harder than Socrates did.

During this era, a group of Philosophers named "The Sophists" sprung out from the Ass end of every Greek State, to put it briefly, the Sophists were a group of people who believed that Persuasion trumped logic because there was no absolute truth, Knowledge required cash and Pleasure was the Sole purpose of our petty existence.  From their ranks came Socrates. However unlike the Sophists, Socrates taught for free and pleasure and money weren't his loves in life. He truly was a man of Philosophy, a man who sought wisdom.

The funny thing about Socrates was that most of the questions that he delved into were not all that complicated. It was all basic stuff, so trivial no one would even think about it. On the article "Greek Thought: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle" Written by Steven Kreis on the website www.HistoryGuide.org he questioned things like: "What is courage? What is Duty? What is Virtue?". 

And throughout most of this questioning wherein the young would always flock towards him he would respond with an endless hailstorm of questions and answers that never lead to a conclusion. Because he believed that his students could find out the answers for themselves at some point in time.

 At his very end, he died because he was accused of being a corrupter of the youth. For this he was executed and although he had many chances of escaping and leaving scot free, he never took 'em. Why? Because he believed that as a citizen, it was his duty to obey the law, now those are some big Greek balls right there.

One of the many things that Socrates became famous/infamous for was his conclusion that he knew nothing. He may have had wisdom and knowledge but he knew nothing. He would go on questioning people about their beliefs, about their lives etc. And realized no one could actually deliver a proper concrete answer. He realized though he could question, he never arrived at an answer thus leading to his conclusion that he knew nothing.

According to the Article "Socrates Biography" written by Pettinger, Tejvan on the website www.biographyonline.net At some point in time, A friend of Socrates asked an oracle what he thought of him, The Oracle responded that no one was wiser. Of course Socrates saw this as a paradox because he believed he knew nothing. However, he realized that he might have actually been the wisest because a 'lot of people pretended to know so much. He was among them, however he was the first to understand that in the end. He knew nothing.

                                           wasn't he a little chubbier than that?

Socrates never wrote a thing about his knowledge, most of what we know about him comes from accounts written by Plato. Plato himself was Socrates greatest student. He too was puzzled that Socrates never gave any conclusions. However in the midst of Plato's search for wisdom, he realized what Socrates might have been trying to show everyone all this time. Plato soon discovered for himself that knowledge was coming to him as he aged. That all this time all of us know the answers of the world. It's just up to us to recollect them.