The Apology of Socrates

            “Apology” is an example of Plato’s method of talking through the character of Socrates.  In the essay itself, he examines what philosophy is, attempting to define it through abstract means, parables spoken by Socrates, and appeals made to the people of Athens.  His claims of philosophy are made to the Athenians, defending it against their seemingly one-track minds.  Socrates must please the crowd and those voting upon his punishment by defending his position, his actions, and his entire mindset, but instead of doing what most would advise him to do and promising to stop his offensive actions, he makes a case for philosophy itself and defends his actions as being a mission from god.

            In this essay, we see Plato’s idea of philosophy, the backbone of his entire teachings and writings on truth.  It is interesting to notice that he presents his own philosophies through Socrates, and it is uncertain whether this particular trial of Socrates ever existed or happened in such a way as Plato depicts.  Socrates speaks for Plato’s way of thinking, his philosophy, by claiming the ignorance of man.  .

            The idea that man is nothing compared to the higher, divine truth is something that Plato is known for advocating as his character of Socrates does.  In this vision that Socrates dictates to his fellow Athenians, Plato’s view that the material is short from truth is clearly evident and important to the argument.  Socrates claims to test the wisdom of man, doing so as an agent of god.  In this way, god represents the Intelligible Realm, believed by Plato to contain all truth.  Socrates realizes why the people of Athena are angry at him, for he has denounced their views that they are wise, and claimed himself to be the wisest of all.  The Athenians don’t understand the position of Socrates as a metaphor for a higher understanding given to him by the absolute.  The absolute is truth, and therefore, truth is not known to man.

            Of all the sorts of people that Socrates interviews, they all rely on their senses in order to explain their wisdom.  He first interviews a politician who is acclaimed for being a very wise man, and finds him to be, in fact, unwise.  The reason why this politician is unwise is the mere idea that he thinks himself to be wise.  Socrates openly chastises the man for believing he is wise, stating the idea that man does not contain the knowledge that this man claims to have.  He states his revolutionary finding: that those who think themselves wise are unwise, and those that are ignorant are wise.

            Socrates examines poets as well, and it seems as though they get closer to containing wisdom, because clearly their poetical works are the works of wisdom.  However, as soon as the poets and the people around them speak, Socrates realizes his mistake.  The poets, he claims, are not wise in themselves, but perhaps they contain an inspiration that is not of themselves.  Whenever Socrates comes upon a man or group of men who think themselves to be wise, he claims that they are not so.

            In the last interview, Socrates gets closer to the meaning of wisdom, and the definition of philosophy in accordance with the teachings of Plato, his pupil.  He interviews the artisans as he does the poets, and finds them to be unwise, but in this instance, he reveals the truth of wisdom and the reason why none of the men he has interviewed thus far can rightfully claim wisdom.  Socrates claims that the people that he has interviewed have thought themselves to be wise only because they are wise in what they do specifically.  This, to both Plato and his characterization of Socrates, is against philosophy: philosophy and wisdom being the very realization that man is not wise and that all wisdom and truth is contained in an intelligible realm of the absolute.

            Unfortunately, Plato’s view of the empirical realm is an underestimation of the wisdom that it can and does contain.  Through observations of the senses, we know that men have gained wisdom of not only empirical nature, but explained some things that Plato would have viewed as residing in the absolute realm.  Through senses and resources gained upon this Earth, man has explained what makes a body move, what makes the Earth spin, what makes stars shine bright in the sky, and what causes the sun to warm our skin.  Man has discovered all of this through the empirical realm of observation.

            Granted, there are certain things that are contained in an absolute realm.  These are those things which cannot be known to man, and may never be known.  The questions of religion, of man’s origin, of the unexplained can barely be guessed upon through anything but the logic we already know, through philosophy or physics, through simple guesses and discussions involving the product of elimination coupled with scientific comparisons with truths known to us. 

            However, the existence of a realm that men do not fully understand does not support the assumption of Plato that everything empirical is simply a copy of the absolute realm.  Why can the absolute realm not exist within the empirical?  Although not visible to man, the absolute realm breathes in the wind that shakes the leaves of trees; it makes itself known through the forces of nature, those explained to us by science, but of unknown origin.  The realm that we cannot understand is all around us, therefore, that which we perceive with our senses is, for the most part, trustworthy and reliable as known truth.  For if the empirical articles we encounter in our everyday lives originate from the Intelligible Realm, who is to rightly say that our senses lie to us?  What originates from truth is not merely a copy of the truth, but a product of the truth.  Therefore, the wisdom that man comes upon through his own experiences, his own field of study, and his own observations through his God given senses are the truth, backed up by the divine realm in which they originated.

We are, me and you, the man who steps into Plato’s cave in order to speak truth to those who live within, staring with blinded eyes at shadows of perceived reality.  We are the philosopher, for we sat within the cave and saw the shadows on the wall, but unlike our peers, we are inspired to question what is outside.  We have broken the chains of captivity and stepped with weary eyes out of the cave, brushing past bemused men holding artifacts of lies.  The truth does not hurt us; in fact, it excited us with its beauty.  We run back into the cave in order to share the truth, hoping that they will see it as we can…

But let me warn you.  There are some who, when their eyes see the sun and gaze upon the truth of questioning, will denounce truth, the light hurting their eyes.  They will cower and run back to the safety of their mimesis of a cave and sit upon the wall, chaining themselves back into the captivity of stubborn acceptance.  They will not listen to our mode of thinking, content instead not to think; however, if we can inspire three or four, five or six to truly engage in thought and see the beauty in the truth revealed, our mission is complete.

Keep thinking, friends, and do not let the unthinking majority drag you down.

A wise mentor of mine told me today to resist the urge to see others as “stupid robotic inferiors” and to learn from them, to make a conscious attempt to view the world through different perspectives.

This is difficult for me to do.  I know that in some of my writings, I may come off as arrogant, encouraging you to put conscious thought above all else, urging you to resist becoming the unthinking human, the robot who follows and does not listen, the one who watches with blind eyes the happenings of the world but refuses to analyze them…

 These people that I urge you not to be are part of your journey, and you can learn from them.  After all, they are human, and as much as you may not like to admit it, so are you.  And so am I.  i can tell you, I don’t like to admit it.  Watch them.  Place yourself in a position where you can see the people around you through an enlightened perspective.  This is a place where you aren’t hurt easily; a place where you are armed with the knowledge of who you are.  In watching others, in observation, we can learn from them.  We can learn who not to be, we can learn new modes of thinking that may very well change our lives, we can learn more about our own minds, for there are things within our minds that we may not have discovered yet.

Many see my words and claim I urge you to be like me, but by no means am I a final product, or even something to model oneself after.  I want to stress to you that I’m in the same place you may be.  I struggle with myself.  I wage war inside my head, between different philosophies, between what is and is not my self.  I’m on a journey of discovery, just as many of you may be.  I’m discovering my mind as I go, creating new ideas, throwing out old ones to replace them with those sturdier, fortified with beliefs and truths I’ve come upon.  The mind is in a constant state of motion: changing, transforming, and hopefully becoming more and more beautiful, being closer to identifying its vessel.

Our lives are dependent on healthy self improvement, on making oneself all he or she can be.  To be completely distant, to avoid observing your fellow human beings, to avoid empathy and compassion for those who want it is dooming yourself to learn from only yourself.  With your own mind as the only source of knowledge, you will never reach your full potential.  It is only by observing the world around us that we are able to grow.  For upon realizing what we are not, we can come to the educated and enlightening conclusion of what we are.

Thank you. =)  Some of my favorite books include…

Definitely Lord of the Rings.  It captivated me like no other series has.  Tolkien brought me into his world like all good fantasy should.  I believe that a good fantasy book should make the reader wish against all possibility and logic that the place he reads about would cease to be fictional and become a reality.  I wished this of Middle Earth.

I’ve been exploring some of the classics in the last few years.  I have a soft spot for tales of adventure.  Moby Dick was amazing to me.  Such an adventure at sea, and the insights into human nature intrigued me as did the countless literary views you could impose upon the story.  I recently wrote a paper applying Nietzsche’s idea of the death of God to the relationship between the whale and Ahab.  The results that I came upon were not what I expected.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau is near the top of my list of favorites.  I can honestly say that this book changed my outlook on life.  It teaches not only the beauty of nature, but the beauty of simplicity in one’s life.  It’s something that I’ve begun to strive for.

Other honorable mentions include

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clark

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Dracula by Bram Stoker

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

1984 by George Orwell

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle

etc.

I do read some more modern authors as well.  I like a little Stephen King from time to time.  I enjoy how intricate and lifelike his characters always are.  I’m not above young adult books either.  Good writing is good writing, and I admit my love for the Harry Potter series and books such as The Giver and The Book Thief.

Those are some of my favorite books that I have read for pleasure.  I just purchased the House of Leaves the other day because it’s supposed to be a good postmodern book.  I’m trying to get more into some more modern literature, because there are writers doing things that haven’t been done before, something I wasn’t aware of until recently.  If you have any suggestions, I’d be happy to take them.

What about being American?  Not to say I’m not proud to be an American, but I feel as though many Americans are overcome with the feeling of being superior.  There are negative connotations that are thought of Americans, and there is a reason why these negative things are applied to the image of an American.  Firstly, Americans are seen as uneducated by other countries because of their lesser education.  I believe that as Americans, it is our job to be sure we are educated enough at least to speak with others about a variety of subjects.  Philosophy is important because the average American does not care about philosophy.  The average American, in fact, does not know what philosophy is.  I tried to explain to someone that philosophy is how you live your life; the thoughts that make up your living process; your views on literally everything.  She replied with, “philosophy is stupid.”  Unfortunately, many Americans are so overcome with the media, entertainment, and the acquiring of wealth that they dismiss the gaining of knowledge as something they have to do in order to get a good job.  To be the best human beings we can be, our job is to remain in a constant state of learning, and maintaining our mode of conscious, insightful thought.

Contemplate.
Take sky and sea
And make them both a piece of me
My mind, encompass everything
to counteract with life’s sweet sting
And take away the pow’rs of kings
of earth of skies of abstract things
of people suff’ring, everything
To make me king of my own mind
For no man’s fit to rule mankind.