As a teenager, Socrates learned carving skills from his father. Later, he became familiar with Homer's epics and the works of other famous poets, and taught himself. He made a living by imparting knowledge. In his thirties, he became a social morality teacher who didn't get paid or run a library. Socrates considered himself a gift and messenger from God to the Athenians. His task is to talk with people all over the world all day, discuss problems and explore the most useful truth and wisdom for himself. Therefore, he spent most of his life outdoors. He likes to talk with people from all walks of life in public places such as markets, sports fields and streets. For example, what is piety? What is democracy? What is virtue? What is courage? What is truth? What is your job? What knowledge and skills do you have? Are you a politician? If so, what do you know about governance? Are you a teacher? How to conquer your ignorance before educating the ignorant? Wait a minute. The theme that runs through these discussions is to lead people to realize that people are actually very ignorant on these crucial issues, so people need to seek what is true justice and kindness through critical discussion, so as to achieve the purpose of transforming the soul and saving the city-state. Socrates said, "My mother is a midwife, and I want to follow in her footsteps. I am a spiritual midwife, helping others to generate their own thoughts. " He also compared himself to a gadfly, a gift from God to Athens. God gave him to Athens in order to stimulate the country with this gadfly. Because Athens is like a good horse, it becomes dull and lethargic because of its obesity and laziness, so it is very necessary for a gadfly to bite it tightly anytime and anywhere, blame it, persuade it, and let it wake up from its lethargy and refresh itself. Socrates regarded criticizing Athens as a sacred mission entrusted to him by God, and this sense of mission and the resulting thinking and exploration became the purpose of his life and philosophical practice. He knew that he would make many people very angry and wanted to crush the gadfly to death, but the mission entrusted to him by God was inviolable, so he risked his life.
Around the age of 40, he became a household name in Athens. In Athens, he debated with many wise men at that time on philosophical issues, mainly about ethics, education and politics, and was regarded as the most intelligent person at that time.
Socrates' theory is mysterious. He believes that the existence, development and destruction of all things in the world are arranged by God, who is the master of the world. He opposed the study of nature as blasphemy.
He advocates that people know how to be human and live a moral life. He defined philosophy as "loving wisdom", and it is very important that he knows his ignorance. Many rich children and poor children often gather around him and ask him for advice, but Socrates often said, "I only know that I don't know anything." He concluded: "Only God is wise. His answer is that human wisdom is worthless or worthless. God is not talking about Socrates. He just used my name as an explanation, as if to say that people, only those who know their wisdom is worthless like Socrates, are the smartest people. " He is proud of his ignorance and thinks that everyone should admit his ignorance.
As a citizen, he joined the army three times and worked as a heavy infantry. He showed tenacity and courage in the war and rescued injured soldiers more than once in the battle. In addition, he served as a jury officer in the Athens citizens' assembly.
However, after the restoration of slave-owner democracy in Athens, Socrates was accused and sentenced to death on charges of flouting traditional religion, introducing new gods, corrupting youth and opposing democracy. He refused the advice of friends and students asking him to beg for mercy and go out to escape, and committed suicide by drinking poisoned wine, at the age of 70.
Socrates really advocates a new God, who is the real source of moral goodness and wisdom: the God of universal reason. This cosmic rational God is the ultimate foundation of Socrates' philosophy-truth and goodness. People can have knowledge because they are given a part of divinity by the special care of God, so they have a soul, a loving heart and a reason. But people should understand that your little soul can't be compared with the wisdom of God. Therefore, this new view of rational God and the teaching that people should be "self-aware and ignorant" have become a powerful force to stimulate and push people to pursue true knowledge and criticize falsehood and hypocrisy.
Socrates loved the Athenian city-state, and he simply did not allow the most sacred ideals to be desecrated. So, he resolutely chose death. It's not that he doesn't cherish life, but that he pays more attention to the soul. He believes that God is omnipresent and omnipotent, and everything is a clever arrangement of God consciously and purposefully. He didn't betray God. In this case, death is God's call to him. What can he hesitate? Maybe people will laugh at him, laugh at his naivety, laugh at his stubbornness and stubbornness, but only those who have a real insight into his inner world will be impressed by his wisdom and loyalty: wisdom makes him see and pay close attention to the virtues that others have not noticed, and loyalty is the city-state he loves, the laws he abides by all his life, and his eternal ideal pursuit.
Take Socrates as an example. On the one hand, he is a great philosopher who pursues truth and sacrifices his life for righteousness, and on the other hand, he is an Athens city-state who flaunts democracy and freedom and is regarded as the source of democratic politics. Who is right and wrong, who is good and who is evil, is not so clear-cut, emotional choice has become a painful torture, so its tragic color is becoming more and more obvious.
Socrates had a large number of fanatical admirers and fierce opponents before and after his death. He did not leave any works in his life, and his actions and theories were mainly passed down through the records in the works of his students Plato and Xenophon. About Socrates' life and theory, because there are various records and statements since ancient times, it has always been the most discussed issue in academic circles.
But his influence is enormous. In the history of European culture, he has always been regarded as a saint who devoted himself to the pursuit of truth, almost like Confucius in the history of China. Philosophers often regard him as a watershed in the history of the development of ancient Greek philosophy, and call his previous philosophy pre-Socrates philosophy. He initiated a new era of Greek philosophy with a new understanding of philosophy, and gave Plato a profound and great influence with his basic idea of soul reincarnation and purification, and through them, he has been influencing the western philosophy in Hellenistic Roman times and even later generations.
Character thinking
It is not a simple matter to study Socrates' philosophical belief: because he didn't leave his own works at all, we can only explore from Plato's and Xenophon's records, but their records are often contradictory, so it has always been a controversial topic about which record is closer to the truth. Some people think that Socrates actually has no specific beliefs, but only interrogates each belief; His long theory published in the Republic is actually Plato's idea. Some people think that he doesn't actually have any beliefs and theories of his own, but there are many arguments about this, because it is quite difficult to distinguish the concepts of Plato and Socrates from the records, and it is even more difficult to explain their concepts. Therefore, it is not easy to find Socrates' thoughts from Plato and Xenophon's records-it must be pointed out that these thoughts are probably not put forward by Socrates himself, but may be closer to the views of these writers.
The evidence from the dialogue shows that Socrates had only two mentors: the grammarian Prodikus and the priestess Diotima, who taught Socrates about love. Some dialogues also show that Socrates was influenced by thinkers such as parmenides and Anaxagoras at that time, and history books usually regard them as Socrates' mentors. John bull Nate, a classical historian, believes that Socrates' main mentor is the scholar of Anaxagoras School, Akilaus, whose record is actually Socrates' own theory. Havelock believes that the relationship between Socrates and Anaxagoras School proves the difference between Socrates and Plato.
Before Socrates, Greek philosophy mainly studied the origin of the universe and what the world was made of, and was later called "natural philosophy". Socrates thinks that re-studying these problems has no practical significance for saving the country. Out of concern for the fate of the country and people, he turned to study human beings themselves, that is, to study human ethical issues, such as what is justice and what is injustice; What is courage and what is cowardice; What is honesty and what is hypocrisy; What is wisdom and how knowledge is acquired; What is a country, what qualities a person should have to govern a country well, how to cultivate talents for governing the country and so on. Later generations called Socrates' philosophy "ethical philosophy". He opened up a new field of philosophical research and made philosophy "return from heaven to earth", which is of great significance in the history of philosophy.
Socrates' philosophy is mainly embodied in the following aspects:
heart
Starting from the wise, ancient Greek philosophy turned from paying attention to nature itself to paying attention to social ethics and people. But they only stay in the perceptual stage and can only draw relativistic conclusions. It was not until Socrates that this situation was fundamentally changed. Socrates called for a "turn of thought" to turn philosophy from studying nature to studying self, which is often said later to bring philosophy back from heaven to earth. He believes that the pursuit of natural truth is endless; I feel that the world is constantly changing, so the knowledge gained is also uncertain. Socrates wants to pursue an unchangeable, definite and eternal truth, which cannot be sought from the outside of nature, but only from himself and himself. His famous saying is know yourself. Since Socrates, self and nature have been clearly distinguished; Man is no longer just a part of nature, but another unique entity different from nature.
soul
Socrates' theory of soul further clarifies the difference between spirit and matter. Philosophers before Socrates have long said that the soul is immortal, and the opposition between idealism and materialism has sprouted. However, philosophers before him still had vague views on the soul, and some even regarded the soul as the finest substance, so the boundary between idealism and materialism was not clear. Until Socrates clearly regarded the soul as a spiritual entity that is essentially different from matter. In Socrates' view, the emergence and disappearance of things is just the aggregation and dispersion of something. In this way, he clearly opposed spirit and matter and became the founder of idealistic philosophy in the history of western philosophy.
truth
Aristotle believes that Socrates gave up the study of nature, wanted to seek universal truth on ethical issues, and began to seek a definition for things. He opposed the relativism of wise men and thought that there could be various opinions, but there was only one truth. "Viewpoint" can change with everyone and other conditions, but "truth" is eternal. In Plato's early dialogues, almost all the topics discussed were how to define ethics. Socrates pursues the understanding of "beauty itself" and "justice itself". This is a universal definition of beauty and justice, real knowledge, Plato's "idea of beauty" and "idea of justice". This is the original form of "idealism" in the history of western philosophy. Socrates further pointed out that the causal series of nature is endless, and if philosophy only seeks this causal series, it is impossible to know the ultimate reason of things. He believes that the ultimate cause of things is "goodness" and goodness is the purpose of things. He replaced the study of causality with teleology, which opened the way for later idealism philosophy.
Dialectical
Midwifery and Dialectics of Exposing Contradiction
Socrates believes that all knowledge comes from problems. The harder you make progress, the more problems you have and the greater your progress. Socrates admitted that he had no knowledge, and he wanted to teach others knowledge. He solved this contradiction in this way: this knowledge is not what he instilled in people, but what people already have; People have a "fetus" in their hearts, but they don't know it yet. Socrates is like a "midwife", helping others to produce knowledge. Socrates' midwifery is concentrated in the form of "cross-examination". He often uses cross-examination to expose the contradictions in various propositions and theories put forward by the other party, so as to shake the foundation of the other party's argument and point out the other party's ignorance. In the cross-examination, Socrates himself did not give a positive answer, because he admitted his ignorance. This way is generally called "Socrates' satire". Socrates' method is developed from the logical reasoning of Elijah School and Zhi Nuo's reduction to absurdity in Elijah. In the negative form of Socrates' satire, there is a positive result of dialectical thinking that exposes contradictions. Sue compared herself to a midwife, and used the method of cocoon reeling from the conversation to let the other side gradually understand their ignorance, discover their mistakes and establish a correct view of knowledge. This kind of conversation also has several characteristics: first, the conversation finds out the other party's thoughts by asking and answering questions, so that they can discover the truth themselves. Only in conversation, Sue focuses on asking questions, and he doesn't answer each other's questions easily. He only asked the other party to answer his questions. He asked questions with humility, and the other party elicited information about other questions in his answer, until finally, due to constant questioning, the youth admitted his ignorance. In the process of asking questions, Sue gave students the highest wisdom, which is the famous Socratic irony. Socrates' method is the earliest form of dialectics in the history of western philosophy.
From the development of philosophical thought, Socrates put forward the distinction between spiritual entity and material entity, which made the opposition between idealism and materialism break away from the simple state of early philosophy and enter a more mature stage; He raised the maxim-like ethical thought of early Greek philosophers to the height of philosophy; He inspires thoughts and exposes contradictions by way of logical debate, and goes deep into the essence of things by way of dialectical thinking. All these are helpful to the development of philosophical thinking. However, as the first systematic idealist philosopher in the history of western philosophy, he began to exaggerate the subject and rationality, exaggerated abstract thinking, and replaced religious myths with philosophical idealism myths.
education
Socrates has been engaged in educational work all his life, and has rich educational practice experience and his own educational theory. But he didn't start his own school. Where does he teach? How did he teach it? Squares, temples, streets, shops, workshops, gyms and so on are all places where he teaches. Young people, old people, rich people, poor people, farmers, artisans, nobles and civilians are all his teaching objects. No matter who asks him for advice, he teaches enthusiastically. At that time, other teachers-wise men-charged tuition fees. They regarded being a teacher as a means of making money, while Socrates taught people not to charge tuition fees. He teaches for the benefit of the polis and is a compulsory teacher. He thinks that education is very important for a person's growth. In his view, no matter whether talented people are smart or dull, if they are determined to achieve commendable achievements, they must study hard and practice hard.
Socrates' educational purpose is to cultivate talents for governing the country. After Pericles's death, Athens became extremely democratic and anarchic without good leaders, and even national leaders were elected by drawing lots or lots. Socrates was very sad about it. He believes that the talents who govern the country must be well educated, and advocates that the talents who govern the country should be trained through education. He devoted his whole life to cultivating talents for governing the country.
Regarding the content of education, he advocates that we should first cultivate people's virtue, teach people to learn to be a man and become a virtuous person; Secondly, we should teach people to learn extensive and practical knowledge. He believes that rulers must have extensive knowledge. He said that in all things, those who are respected and praised are the most knowledgeable people, and those who are condemned and despised are the most ignorant people; Finally, he advocated teaching people to exercise. He believes that a healthy body is very important for physical activities and thinking activities, whether in peacetime or in wartime. And a healthy body is not born, only through exercise can people be strong.
In terms of teaching methods, Socrates formed his own unique teaching method through long-term teaching practice, which he called "Socrates method" and "midwifery". His mother is a midwife, which is a metaphor for his teaching methods. His mother's midwifery is midwifery, and his teaching principle of midwifery is to deliver babies for ideas and to guide people to produce correct ideas.
Socrates' method is always in the form of questions and answers between teachers and students, so it is also called "question and answer method". When Socrates taught students to acquire a certain concept, he did not tell them directly, but first asked the students questions and asked them to answer. If a student answers wrong, he doesn't correct it directly, but asks other questions to guide them to think, so as to draw a correct conclusion step by step. It laid the foundation for heuristic teaching.
The question-and-answer teaching method advocated by Socrates has a great influence on later generations, and it is still an important teaching method until today.
There is such a thing in Socrates' teaching. On the first day of school, Socrates said to his students, "Today we only do one thing. Everyone tried to throw their arms forward and then backward. " With that, he made a demonstration. "Starting today, do it 300 times a day. Can you do it? " The students all laughed. Who wouldn't do such a simple thing? But a year later, when Socrates asked again, only one of all his students insisted. Later, this man became a new generation of thinkers after him. This man was called Plato.
moral philosophy
Socrates established an ethical thought system that knowledge is morality, and its center is to explore the purpose and kindness of life. He emphasized that people should know the universal laws of social life and "know themselves", and thought that all kinds of beneficial or harmful purposes and moral norms that people obtained in real life were relative. Only by exploring the concept of universal and absolute goodness and mastering the true knowledge of this concept can we realize the highest purpose of life and the highest virtue of human beings. Socrates believes that a person must have moral knowledge if he wants to have morality, and all immoral behaviors are the result of ignorance. Only when people get rid of the temptation of material desires and the limitation of acquired experience and acquire conceptual knowledge can they have virtues such as wisdom, courage, temperance and justice. He believes that morality can only be arranged by the mind and God, and moral education is to make people know the mind and God and obey God's instructions. This ethical thought of asceticism and mysticism was later inherited and developed by antisthenes, forming a cynic school characterized by emphasizing asceticism; The hedonism thought contained in Socrates' ethical thought was inherited and developed by Aristib, and the Guler School advocating hedonism was formed. Plato completely inherited Socrates' ethical thought system and further systematized and theorized it. Socrates emphasized the importance of knowledge and thought that ethics should be decided by reason. This rationalism has played a positive role in the development of western philosophy.
debate
Socrates often argues with others. In the debate, he made the other side correct and give up the original wrong ideas by asking and answering questions, and helped people produce new ideas. This question and answer is divided into three steps: the first step is called Socrates' satire, which he thinks is a necessary step to make people smart, because unless one is humble and "knows his ignorance", he can't learn real knowledge. The second step is called definition. After repeated questions and induction in question and answer, a clear definition and concept are obtained. The third step is called midwifery, which guides students to think for themselves and draw their own conclusions. As Socrates himself said, although he is ignorant, he can help others acquire knowledge, just as his mother is a midwife. Although she is old and barren, she can deliver a baby and help a new life to be born.
Socrates never gave students ready-made answers, but made students unconsciously accept the influence of his thoughts by asking questions and refuting them.
Manage state affairs
Socrates advocates the theory of expert governance. He believes that all walks of life and even state power should be managed by trained and knowledgeable people, and opposes the democracy implemented by the lottery election law. He said: managers are not those who hold heavy power and bully the weak, not those who are elected by the people, but those who know how to manage. For example, ships should be driven by people who are familiar with sailing; When spinning wool, women should take care of men, because men are good at it and men don't understand it. He also said that the best people are those who are competent for their own work. Good farmers are good farmers; A good doctor is proficient in medical skills; People who are proficient in politics are excellent politicians.
Anecdotal stories of people, poisoned wine
Socrates (469 BC-399 BC), the most outstanding philosopher in ancient Greece, was Plato's teacher. He had a far-reaching influence on the development of western philosophy. Socrates has been exploring the truth all his life. Because he is good at rhetoric and often refutes those shallow people who think they are knowledgeable, he enjoys high prestige among young people. Unfortunately, in 399 BC, he was publicly tried by conservative nobles on charges of inciting young people and insulting the Athenian god, and was sentenced to death.
According to the laws of Athens at that time, the way to execute a prisoner was to give him a glass of poisoned wine, but within one month before the execution, the court allowed relatives and friends of the prisoner to visit the prison. At that time, many young people visited Socrates in prison every day. When a young man named Critto asked Socrates what his last words were, Socrates replied, "I have nothing but what I usually said to you. Please remember it. You must keep moral integrity. If you don't live according to what I say, no matter how many promises you make to me now, you can't comfort my dead. " Then he got up and took a bath.
One night in June 399 BC, when Socrates was about to be executed, I saw him in rags and barefoot, but his expression was calm. He sent his wife and daughter away and talked with his students, such as Fido, West Mias, West Pass and Clito, about the immortality of the soul. Soon, the jailer came in and said, "Every time I ordered the prisoners to take poisoned wine, they hated me and cursed me, but I had to carry out the orders of my superiors." You are the noblest prisoner here, so I think you will never hate me, only those who want to execute you. I'm under orders now. I hope you'll suffer less. Goodbye, my friend. "Say that finish, she burst into tears and left the cell. Socrates looked at the jailer's back and said, "Farewell, friend, I will do as you say." Then he turned around and said kindly to the young man, "What a good man. He has visited me every day since I went to prison, and sometimes he talks to me kindly. Now he is crying for me. What a kind person! Clitoris, come here. If the poisoned wine is ready, send someone to get it at once, otherwise please do it quickly. " Crystal replied, "It is said that when some prisoners hear that they are going to be executed, they always try their best to delay the time so that they can enjoy a sumptuous dinner. Please don't be impatient, there is still time! " Socrates said at this moment: "You are right indeed, those people are beyond reproach for doing so, because in their view, they have gained something by delaying taking poisoned wine;" "But for me, I can't get anything by delaying taking poisoned wine. On the contrary, in my opinion, saving lives and having a good meal should be despised. Go get the wine. Please respect my request. "
After a while, the man who delivered the poisoned wine came. Socrates is very calm. He raised the cup with poisoned wine to his chest and said quietly, "It's time to break up. I'm dying. Only God knows whose choice this is. " Pick up the cup and drink it off. All the people present wept for the loss of such a good friend. Socrates was very unhappy when he saw this scene. He said, "How could you do that? To avoid such a scene, I sent my family away. As the saying goes, you are not afraid of danger, and you are dead. Please be strong! " Socrates then strolled indoors for a while, saying that his legs were numb and he lay down. The wine delivery man came over and touched his body, feeling no heat. Suddenly, Socrates murmured, "Critto, come here. We borrowed a rooster from Creppi uz. Please don't forget to pay him. " His last words were "Clifton". I owe Asclepius a chicken. Remember to pay this debt for me. "Say that finish, the great philosopher closed his eyes and passed away quietly.
Socrates' philosophy is integrated with his life practice, and his personal fate is inseparable from the fate of Athens. He pursued the ideal of goodness for his motherland, and the motherland repaid his contribution with the death penalty, which fulfilled his philosophy. Socrates did not have the slightest anger, fear or sadness, but still sincerely exhorted everything in his wise tone. He knew that he was an angel of God, and all this was arranged by God. He still has unfinished parts of his life, and death can give him a perfect ending.
In ancient Greece, the law was regarded as the foundation of the city-state's security, with the dignity of a goddess, and it could be said that it was the real protector of the city-state. Under the protection of this god, the ancient Greek city-states were governed by law, and no one's status was higher than the law. Socrates believes that the laws of the polis are an agreement reached unanimously by citizens and should be unswervingly implemented. Only by obeying the law can the people work together in Qi Xin to make the city-state extremely powerful. Strict compliance with the law is the fundamental guarantee for people's happiness and the strength of the city-state, and its value is far higher than personal life.
Socrates also believes that law, like polis, comes from God and is a principle set by God. Law was originally embodied in natural law, and natural law is also the law of nature. It is purely an act of God or a deliberate arrangement of God. Later, the laws promulgated by the polis were called personal laws. Although man-made law is not as universal as natural law, it is changeable, because man-made law comes from natural law, and people accept and obey the guidance of man-made law, which means that people accept and obey the constraints of natural law, that is, obey the will of God. The ideal state of a city-state must be a state in which everyone abides by the law from the heart, which is not only Socrates' ideal and belief in his life, but also the internal motivation of his generous sacrifice.
Socrates was unjustly sentenced to death by his compatriots, but he still talked about "respecting morality, attaching importance to justice, attaching importance to law and attaching importance to the rule of law". He thinks that life is nothing more valuable than this, and it is really full of freedom. Socrates is a hero. He realized the power of moral ideal and realized it voluntarily, even if he gave his life for it. His death was a tragedy. The tragedy is that both sides of the conflict have reasons for existence and are irreconcilable. So Socrates took on this huge conflict with his own body and took on the responsibility and mission of free personality. For Socrates, his career is his spirit, and the spirit of consciousness, voluntariness, self-discipline and freedom has been greatly improved through him.