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Socrates was an old soldier, who fought for Athens well into his 40’s. Alcibiades was instrumental in his downfall, in many ways, as it was the impetuosity of this young man that ultimately poisoned the well of public opinion against Socrates. Much of what we think we know about Socrates comes from the writings of others – Plato and Xenophon in particular. Interestingly, Xenophon was an Athenian who spent much of his life living in Sparta. Alcibiades, of course, fled to Sparta in an act of treasonous betrayal before returning when Athens was defeated by the Spartans. Democracy fell and the 30 Tyrants were installed to run Athens – Socrates is associated with these tyrants, as he served in an official capacity as a public servant during this oligarchic period. It was a time of great political upheaval, obviously, and Athenian citizens of standing would be hard pressed to avoid taking sides, I imagine.
The Political Battles Around Socrates
Today, we in the West think of democracy as this wonderful form of government and community engagement in the choosing of government. In ancient Greek times, around the 5C BCE, democracy was a novel and largely untested thing. Supporters of oligarchic government saw it as mob rule and vulnerable to manipulation by demagoguery. These fears remain true to this day and there have been plenty of examples of them coming to fruition. Populists capturing the mood and grievances of the people, the demos. Adolf Hitler and Donald Trump immediately spring to mind.
Socrates was, I suspect, a pragmatic man having been a soldier for large periods of his life by all accounts. His philosophy developed out of his experiences in concert with the input from his own philosophic mentors.
The Socratic Method & The Influence Of Soldiering
The Socratic method has come down to us via the writing of his student Plato. It is therefore only a version of the truth and must be taken with grains of salt. The idea of testing conceptions of truth and philosophies does speak of pragmatism, however, and fits with the perspective of an old soldier. What stands up on the battlefield has parallels with the adversarial questioning technique employed by Socrates in defining truth. Logical argumentative dialogue delving into the fashioning of facts, as illustrated by Plato in his own writings. It is inferred from this approach that Socrates made many enemies over the years, as he disassembled their philosophic assumptions under the heat of the Socratic method.
It is, also, perhaps, why Socrates’ reputation for physical ugliness has come down to us. Losers tend to play the man if they cannot win by playing the ball, I find. Call them names if you cannot outsmart them honourably.
The Making Of A Philosophical Giant
Socrates, although an obscure 5C BCE philosopher who left no extant writings, has ended up being one of the most influential figures of Western civilisation. Why is this so? A supposedly ugly old soldier with a penchant for poverty and cantankerous challenging of accepted ideas among his fellow citizens sits in the revered heavens of great human thinkers. Up there with Jesus Christ, no less, as the most influential thinkers of all time in the Western canon. If we expand this exclusive club to include Eastern thinkers, we would incorporate the Buddha, Lao Tzu. Mohammad, and Zarathustra. What all of these world shaking figures have in common is that they are largely the creation of others. Interestingly, Socrates shares this fact with all of them, in that what is known about these iconic giants comes to us via the writings and recollections of others. There are scant verifiable primary sources for any of those whom we elevate to the very top of the tree. Thus, made-up stuff permeates much of what we think we know about them and is, in my opinion, essentially why we consider them timeless giants who stand outside of normal human parameters. We all love a good story and don’t want inconvenient truths to get in the way. Elevating a few folk to godlike status fits in with how we have historically wished to see the world. Miracles and world beating episodes are tacked on as the legends grow. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Socrates
Socrates Martyr To Free Speech
Socrates drank the hemlock and died, as he was executed by the Athenian state for impiety and corrupting the youth of the city. Socrates was in his early 70’s at the time. Imagine if social media was around back then and who would be drinking the hemlock these days. Pepsi would have to be bottling the stuff to keep up with the demand. Freedom of speech was obviously not a thing back then. Socrates is a hero to the idea of freedom of speech and of speaking truth to power. We still take the corruption of youth very seriously today, however, and there are moves to ban social media for children afoot right now. Andrew Tate and his misogynistic ilk are in the firing line of many modern day governments in the 21C. The martyrdom of Socrates is another integral part of his legendary status, I think. Dying for your principles makes a powerful crescendo to any story. Christianity owes a huge debt to Socrates on this basis and the myth of Socrates has been very influential in its development. The creation of the mythos of Christ walks in the footsteps of the Socratic story. Early Christian martyrs stand like sanctified sentinels guarding the edifice that is the Holy Roman Church.
Martyrdom remains a powerful political act for the powerless in the face of tyranny.
The Old Soldier In The Public Square
What, then, are the essential bones that make-up the Socrates story? An old soldier whose father was a stone mason and mother might have been a midwife. Formative influencers who worked with their hands and brought forth fine things from primal elements. Philosophy is thought by many to be an airy thing, of intangible ideas, but Socrates was earth bound. He liked the back and forth of human engagement. He was the ultimate public intellectual, in that his full time arena was the public square. Dressed in rags, according to some accounts, but more likely he wasted not what little he had on fine garments. Socrates saw his life as a devotion to the city of Athens through the training of the minds of its citizens, especially its youth. I keep coming back to the old soldier theme, sparring with ideas now instead of spears. In the end, he was a man prepared to die for his ideals and not prepared to cut a deal like a lawyer. Lots of remembered great men of words are lawyers like Cicero and Seneca. Socrates was an old soldier, a different archetypal character. What do we know, more generally, about professional soldiers of long standing? Hoplites stand together, shoulder to shoulder depending on each other for cover. Survivors of bloody battles know that they are lucky to be alive, according to fortune and the fates. They have invariably seen comrades fall and lose their lives – thus, but for the grace of God go I. Socrates, may well have taken a fatalistic ethos into the back end of his life. He seems to have come relatively late to his roles of philosopher and public intellectual. In retrospect, one could see his existence as extreme in nature and him as a risk taker on this basis. The execution of Socrates strikes many of us today, as, perhaps, overkill for crimes we struggle to perceive as serious crimes at all. The ancient world was a very different sphere, however, one we cannot really fathom from such a distant point of time in its future.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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