8. Socrates and the Unexamined Life

                                  

A bronze statue of Socrates shows him sitting and pondering for he always said that the unexamined life was not worth living.
The Thinker by Rodin

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”1

-Plato’s Apology, 38a

This now famous line, which Socrates spoke at his trial, has rippled throughout Western Civilization. If I could sum up Socrates’ legacy in one maxim, it would be this quote. We must know ourselves and by extension the reason why we are here.

Socrates may have gotten this idea from the phrase, “know thyself (γνῶθι σεαυτόν), that was inscribed on the temple of Delphi.2 Or he may have first learned it by reading the works of Heraclitus. Regardless, the important thing is that he burned this idea of self-examination into the collective conscience of Western Civilization by proclaiming. It’s non-negotiable as he faced death by execution.

The famous inscription on the Temple of Delphi was more than a maxim. It was a warning for those who wished to be initiated into the higher mysteries of the divine nature. One could not proceed into the higher mysteries without a proper self-understanding. Knowing thyself then was the doorway into union with the divine. And union with the divine was the catalyst through both divine and human universe mysteries, would eventually unfold.

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7. Socrates a Philosopher of Virtue and Truth

This in an outer walkway of a monastery that is comprised of beautiful gothic architecture. This symbolizes the greatness of Western civilization and the legacy of Socrates

What is the legacy of Socrates? For not leaving any writings behind, he had a tremendous impact on those who followed him1.

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6. Socrates, Martyr for the Truth

This is a very interesting picture of an ancient prison in Athens, Greece. Although most likely not the prison that Socrates died in, nevertheless a good example of what it may have looked like with its stone front and metal bars. Presocratic philosophers

The Presocratic Philosophers and Socrates

Socrates died for his beliefs and this set him apart from all other Presocratic philosophers that preceded him. He changed the course of Greek philosophy1.

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5. Socrates an Ambassador of Truth to Athens

Here we have an image of a statue of Socrates sitting in a chair. He is leaning slightly forward with his left hand up to his face. The expression on his face is one of deep thought and contemplation.
 

Previously, I discussed how Socrates was convicted of “corrupting the youth” and “impiety.”1 He was accused of impiety because he tried to expand the meaning of piety beyond mere ceremony into intellectual understanding and the development of virtue. What good is honoring the gods if you are ignorant of what you are doing and you are, in fact, a rotten person?

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4. Socrates the Humble Revolutionary

This is the ruins of the Greek Parthenon in Athens signifying the majesty of a once great Greek civilization that included the arts and philosophy.

Socrates Upsets the Status Quo

In the previous post, we saw that there were real and contrived reasons for why Socrates was brought to trial. Even though he was implicated in support of the previous tyrannical regime, he probably would have been fine if he had kept his head down and stayed under the radar. But he did just the opposite.

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3. Socrates the Wisest Man in Athens

This is a statue of a bust of Socrates showing him as the "ugly" philosopher with the pug nose, etc.

Why was Socrates executed? He was tried in front of 501 of his Athens peers who, acting as judge and jury, declared him guilty and sentenced him to death.1

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2. Socrates’ Death and the Triumph of Reason

This is a statue of Socrates slumped in a chair, head down and eyes closed after he succumbed by drinking the poisoned hemlock.

On the appointed day of his death, Socrates, at 70 years old, is in a jail in Athens, Greece. His friends and family are allowed to see him. Socrates calmly discusses matters of the afterlife before drinking the hemlock. 

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1. The Harmony and Tension Between Faith and Reason

St. Paul played an integral role in encouraging the synthesis of faith and reason - Christian theology and Greek philosophy.
Sermon of St. Paul in Athens, Raphael, 1515 (Faith and Reason)

“What does Jerusalem have to do with Athens?

-Tertullian, Church Father (155A.D.-220A.D.)

After his 51 A.D. encounter with the Greek philosophers at the Areopagus, the Apostle Paul would probably have answered the above question with, “Not much.” Up until this time, Hebrew faith and Greek philosophy had been developing on parallel paths. It seems as though they had nothing in common. After all, the Greeks were the philosophical people and the Jews were the people of faith. Obviously, this is an oversimplification, but you get the point.

But here was the one chance for the two to come together – faith and reason in tandem. The Apostle Paul would bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of the Jewish Scriptures to the Greeks, the primary purveyors of philosophical ideas in the ancient world. With the meeting of the two, faith would have the philosophical language by which to express itself, and reason would have the revelation it needed in order to reason rightly.

Well, it didn’t quite happen that way. Paul preached on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a central tenant of the Christian faith, and received a tepid response at best. According to the account in Acts 17, when Paul mentioned the resurrection, some began to scoff at him while others asked him to return so that they could hear more. He ultimately left with only a smattering of converts. What happened?

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