Thinking is hard work...

That is the danger of self-teaching oneself of philosophy. One tends to garble everything up and develop his own 'brand' of philosophy. It cannot be such a wrong thing, on the contrary, since no two philosophers can completely agree with each other. Whatsmore, even students and masters have parted ways upon minor disagreements. Think Plato and Aristotle, Freud and Jung, you know what I am talking about. Even with time, a particular interpretation can morph, perhaps as an afterthought or in keeping with the flavour of the era.

The scope of the field of philosophy itself has evolved over time. If before it used to encompass everything under the sun and beyond, mathematics, grammar and sciences included, it is now agreed that it covers knowledge, life and existence. Since the journey of life does not come with a preset map, I guess that it could be sailed anyway we like as long as we live and let live. Let everybody navigate his own route.

 I always thought Plato was just a scribe to Socrates train of thoughts. Socrates never wrote any books but engaged in public discourses in the marketplace (agora). Plato helped to disseminate Socratic teachings to the world. 

But then, I realise that there are some subtle differences in their approaches in their attempts to explore the meaning of life. Socrates believed that discussion out in the open with any Tom, Dick and Harry would bring out wisdom. Knowledge has no boundaries, and not everyone knows everything. Hence, everyone can bring something to the table; a sailor on the understanding of the high seas, a weaver on mastery of designs, a surgeon the grasp of the functions of the body and so on.

In 'The Apology' Socrates compared himself to an annoying gadfly that constantly irritates the horse. He prods others to think, introspect and find the answers to life questions that lay in front from us. He was a master teacher who could needle out responses. He is quoted to have said that his actions are, "as upon a great noble horse which was somewhat sluggish because of its size and needed to be stirred up by a kind of gadfly."

Maya

Plato, in 'The Republic',  as seen in the Cave allegory, thinks that people are like the prisoners who see the world through shadows on the wall look at reality through their own lenses. They are so convinced of their perception of the world that they are unconvinced when a knowledgeable person tries to convince them of the colourful three-dimensional world out there. People need leaders to pave the path for them; preferably, leaders should be philosophers.

When we look around us, Platonic teachings seem to hold many truths. People find it easier to just follow preset rules without thinking. Using the brain is a very strenuous exercise. Following a set protocol decided by the powers that be absolves them from liabilities and wild accusations. They are protected. At the same time, they forget that, through this means, they can be manipulated by self-serving leaders. Some professions demand such obedience. The country wants a soldier to carry out his assignments without having a second thought. When his superior commands him to kill the bandits, his job is shoot, not introspect. But then, does this rhetoric also apply to the promise of a good after-life or better placing in the karmic ladder by an intangible force in the celestial space?

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Think, brain think!

Genius of the Ancient World (BBC Four)
#2. Socrates.

My mother, with her limited academic qualifications due to lack of opportunities, still try to enrich her mind. Her daily dose of wisdom used to come from the Tamil calendar. Besides having the daily almanac, it came with famous sayings and quotations. From them, she knew about JFK's 'ask what your country has done for you but what you have done for your country', Gandhian philosophy and Socrates' famous teachings to question everything in life.

At a time when every occurrence happened by the auspices of the pantheon of Gods, Socrates stimulated the minds of the young to ask life's difficult questions. Is wealth a good thing? Does democracy create a just society? What makes Man truly happy?

Probably after being a soldier and seeing the effects of war, he must have been disillusioned by humankind. Having the luxury of comfort in Athens at that time, with plenty of time in the Agora and an average of one to two maids per household, he encouraged people to harness the power of the mind to explain things happening around them. He questioned the roles of Gods and teased the spirit of inquiry.

Democracy was at an infant stage. Athens was ruled by Pericles and was at perpetual war with their nemesis, the Spartans, the lesser beings, the non-democratics. It was during one of this war that Athenians had an acute shortage of food and had to resort to cannibalism, stimulating the philosophical search for answers of this entity called life.

Socrates never believed in putting his thoughts on paper. It was done mostly by his pupil, Plato. Cicero, a later philosophy, refers to Socrates as one who brought philosophy to people's homes. The Pre-Socratic thinkers mainly tried to explain things around us, Socrates tried to impart knowledge through dialogue, not through the traditional teaching method. He brought the students to dizzying heights, to nurture, to help them to think, to break down the problem and to make them realise.

The sophist of that era had the uncanny ability to convince his listeners of something quite frivolous through the art of persuasion. They did for an exorbitant fee whereas Socrates did that with the common people.

He leaves with a plethora of quotations and thoughts. The beauty of the mind is more valuable that the beauty of the body (discussion with Alcibiades). Seek the truth of the human god. He preached against dogma and fanaticism. I do not pretend to know what I do not know.

Socrates was such an important figure in his lifetime, even with his simpleton unkempt, unshaven, bared feet appearance. At the Oracle of Delphi, a priestess, apparently talking on behalf of the  Gods, proclaimed that there was no greater man than Socrates. Aristophanes, in one of his plays in the theatre, ridiculed Socrates. All these must have got Pericles and the powers that be very hot under their collars. The deflection of his student, Alcibiades, must have been the best excuse to incarcerate him. Socrates was accused of impiety for ridiculing the Gods and corrupting the young minds. He chose hemlock to end his life, as a cure of the soul from the body uttering, "Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt." Asclepius was the God of healing and it was customary to offer a rooster to heal the sick.

Socrates' prophecy is proving to be true. We are fixated with our looks, material god, spin and fame.

To know is to know that you know not!

My mother was dead sure 55 years ago that her predicament was induced by poverty. She blamed her father for not ensuring that education was given importance to the girls of the family.  In his case, he generally thought that school was quite a waste of time when precious time could be used in the workforce and the continuity of survival. She was crossed that her husband did not have the means to give her pleasure of sitting haughtily cross-legged on her throne as the mistress of her own home but instead had to be contended to make other people's home tidy and clean. She cursed the stars that she was born under that cast a spell that it was necessary to bring in a second source of income to her young family. 

And then that happened. It was a series of maladies that were destined to happen as she ventured into her family life. After nine months of carrying an apparently normal baby boy, she delivered a stillbirth! Scrutinising the lifeless stillborn child, she noticed dark marks on his cheeks and back. All through her grieving period, through the consoling words of her friends, she thought she came to learn of the reason for her loss...

Slapped Cheek

She remembered that day, vividly. The bus had arrived late, and she was rushing to her workplace. To reach her destination on time and to avoid embarrassment in front of her contemporaries and employer, she, in her obviously pregnant state took a short cut. It involved walking diagonally through a Christian graveyard. As fate had it, a funeral procession was in session. She felt a cool zephyr pass by, and suddenly she felt an intense feeling of apprehension as she approached the crowd. She passed it off as tiredness of pregnancy, the heat and her fast-paced movement. A few weeks after that episode, the mishap happened. Her world came crumbling down. The loss of a male heir to rewrite her life history came to zilch. No one could give her a decent explanation for her loss.

Thanks to her street-smart, worldly friends, there was closure. It seems that the Grimm Reaper, in his zest to recruit more souls to his side, was on a wild hunt at the heat of the noon sun. An easy prey was standing in from of him in the form of a gravid mother. All Satan needed to do was to give a tight slap on the fetal cheek and back and voila, another one bit the dust, another soul to the dark side.

Everything fitted in fine like lock and key. She had another reason to be melancholic about life. Poverty drove her to work, braving the sun and graveyards to make ends meet. And impoverishment made her lose her child. That was her understanding of her loss. Life moved on. She went to deliver three other children and the grace of God and her unwavering loyalty to the Almighty. 

In her mind, everything made sense. She, in her gestational state, should have known better than to venture into sensitive areas, like a graveyard where restless souls looked for company. What more, at the height of the time when the sun when it is at its peak above the head! It was her fault, she thought, but she justified her actions and the outcome of her fate.

Little did she realise, she never came to know until her second-born who later made it to medical school enlightened her on a condition called 'slapped cheek syndrome' or 'fifth disease' caused by a virus (Parvovirus B19). It was known to cause stillbirths. It was inconsequential, anyway. Much water had passed the bridge.

One does not have to know the truth, the whole and nothing but the truth to carry on with life. Even though it is unimaginable, life was still going on planet Earth when its occupants though that their planet was a flat pancake. Just like the explanation of interference of unknown forces only work fine for my mother. Many things were accepted with simple, which now seems mumbo-jumbo, explanations. She agreed to the fact that one cannot know everything and some stones are better left unturned. It gave her closure to meet another challenge in life.

Socrates was quoted to have said that 'to know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of real knowledge'. The problem is how far you want to go to seek the truth. Somehow, one has to draw the line somewhere, pacify himself with his limited knowledge and move on to do other things in life.

"What I do not know, I do not think I know"Socratic paradox.

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