JUAN CECILIO MIRANDA

Juan Cecilio Miranda Pedrosa

M00-06-2430

HONP 3124

Mythological Image and Concept of Eros According to Plato

Prof. Mariosz M. Jacko

Perhaps the question of whether or not we need Socrates in our day and age of modern philosophy is better said in the reverse.  Would Socrates need modern philosophy in his quest to prove the Oracle of Delphi wrong or did he get what he needed before he drank his deadly cocktail?  Certainly the concept of the man who claimed to know nothing, that he was seeking to coax wisdom out of people’s inner being while being sublimely innocent in the process, and at once disclaiming that he was teaching anything, being himself rather the eternal student is something that the world may yet not be ready to grasp even at this stage.  According to the writings of Plato and following the words of Socrates in his Apology, the teachings of Socrates-if he would have allowed them to be called teachings since he constantly said he never taught anything-were centered mostly on stimulating people to think for themselves.  The sophists found this very annoying in Socrates, who was sometimes called the worst sophist in Athens.  If people were stimulated to think for themselves then the cattle mentality that the sophists used to gain wealth and power over others would crumble.  A large group of people who would suddenly find themselves contemplating their inner wisdom, disconnected from the external influence of those who tune their thoughts for them with little or no resistance, are indeed a serious problem for said external influence which would be threatened by free thinkers.  As Socrates’s prize pupil Plato so artistically phrased it, the prisoners in the cave of ignorance would find themselves in a new world where the restraints of the world that had shackled them could no longer limit their view of the universe.

               Socrates would be very frustrated with our society if he were among us today.  For one thing, he very well might say that we are a slave society drowned in information and parched of wisdom and initiative.  He probably would begin a search for one person who was as disconnected as possible from mainstream society and its influence and begin to explore knowledge in the way he did in Athens, through open dialogue and conversation.  The result would be that that person would begin to think for himself and become a power unto him as no external source would direct his thoughts.  Socrates would have coaxed them out of him and those thoughts would fly like an eagle above the “informed” prisoners of the cave we call society.  The parallel concept to this is the story of John Livingstone Seagull who soared above the rest of his kind, who in turn branded him mad, as Aristophanes ridiculed Socrates for claiming the soul was sentient.  That teaching however, (Socrates would probably call it a realization of inner wisdom) has carried over into every theology in the world today.  Socrates spoke of questioning everything and the eternal search for knowledge but the sophists would not see their indoctrination threatened by anyone, especially Socrates who challenged not only their so-called wisdom, but the very concepts of beauty and love.  Since they could not fault him at anything particularly evil, they opted for the charge of corrupting youth into direct disobedience.  Begging Miletus’s pardon, but I believe we all need to disobey every now and then in order to progress.  We need an ignorant wise man like Socrates in our world again, someone to once again bring us to question whether or not we are thinking for ourselves or if we have relinquished that power once again to the sophists who whore themselves to the highest bidder as jailors and shepherds of cattle minded prisoners in a giant cave.  Once again, however, the question begs to be asked, does Socrates need us or did he find what he sought?

               Socrates ended his life in serenity and calm in that he had not erred for a moment because he had stimulated people to think and question rather than meekly accept what was handed down from antiquity.  He left this world in the company of friends and thinkers who wailed in sorrow at his passing, all the while he was telling them that it would not end what he had started.  The hemlock could kill his body, not his essence or his impact on the world, Plato would see to that part for the rest of his days.  But for the sake of argument, say a time portal opens right now and Socrates walks out of it from the Parthenon just as his accusers are plotting his demise.  We would think he would believe to be in an alien world of totalitarian sophistry, and he would probably be right.  He would however begin his dialogue with passersby seeking wisdom and knowledge.  People would give him the generic answer to that query in our time, “Google it”, they would say. He would then come to the conclusion that he was better off in Athens where he was despised by sophists than surrounded by puppets of sophists who were completely faceless and soulless from the start.  We need Socrates but he does not need us in our vegetative state.  He would probably say that we are slaves who do not have chains upon our bodies but upon our souls and minds.  Our masters are our own creations which have taken over without our knowing and now we call them “Master” without ever knowing we do so.  Philosophy carries on the task of Socrates by seeking that wisdom within all of us, but the task is daunting in a world where knowledge abounds and applied wisdom is nigh inexistent.   How bitter the hemlock is indeed to us, Socrates.   Asclepius has indeed avenged you through the potion which brought you to Charon.  Teach us from the Isle of the Blest as we struggle to think as you did.  Oh yes, Socrates, we need you, but we must ask you, are we worth the trouble at all? We await your reply from the ether.