Socrates bought a fresh way of seeing any situation, thinking and responding to any challenge, conversation. Socrates, a famous Greek philosopher and founder of Western Philosophy [Wikipedia].
According to Socrates a truth is always outcome of discussion filled with logic and reason. Like other Stoic philosopher, he too stressed on having a human life filled with Virtues.
In most encounters and debates, he stressed on reasoning and truth instead bias and prejudice which society and people had put upon.
In what we call now is Socratic way of enquiry, an observation and analysis based on facts and available truths.
It is an irony that 500 people voted on the fate of Socrates on compliance of 3 individuals under incompetent judges with least of the knowledge on the subject. Also that he was not given enough time to talk on his defence during proceeding.
Although his method of asking questions with any strangers on the street of Athens would definitely have gone in major resentment. I guess it would have been altogether a different ball game in modern era of Twitter, we are virtually connected and asking questions and answering to anyone and everyone. 🙂
Some core learnings:
- Do not believe in everything told to you or shared by others.
- Stop living a life under prejudice, conditioning and rules.
- Reason and do observe make an absolute inquiry before taking any decision.
- On conversation or argument don’t be emotional but be thoughtful. Ask questions, be logical filled with proper reasoning
Sometimes I wonder what Socrates would have said about new age technologies like Crypto, AR/VR or ICO’s. Would he had followed the herd and fallen for FOMO(fear of missing out) or would have made proper reasoning before venturing into it.
Fun Fact:
Socrates has not written any book. There were no mobile devices or tape recorders. Most of his sayings are essentially notes collected by Plato, Crito and other philosophers who were present during his famous debates.
Reference: The Consolations of Philosophy