A Lesson From Socrates That Will Change The Way You Think скачать в хорошем качестве

A Lesson From Socrates That Will Change The Way You Think

Socrates 470 BC - 399 BC A classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher, of the Western ethical tradition of thought. ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ Hello, I am Socrates and I changed the world. As I speak to you now, I'm sitting in a jail cell in a cave just outside of Athens. In a few moments, a guard is going to bring me a cup of poison hemlock to drink. After I do so, I will become very sleepy and then I will take my last breaths. But before that happens, I thought I'd share some things with you. I was born in Athens in ancient Greece. People know very little about my history and early life... and I like to keep it that way. You will see that I'm a bit of a troublemaker and like to be a little mysterious. Most people know me as one of the first philosophers of the Western world, but I never saw myself that way. Philosophers tend to think they know a lot about the world, but me? I really don't think I know anything at all. When I returned to Athens after fighting in the Peloponnesian War, I did quite a bit of thinking. You see, in my time there were many men who were considered wise, but I was very skeptical of this wisdom. In my life and travels, I found that many people who appear or claim to be wise are not actually very wise at all. This is a problem because when people believe a man is wise, they tend to blindly follow him - often with terrible consequences. If you don’t question this wisdom, you can never discover its flaws. Then knowledge stands still like a stone, instead of growing and changing like a tree. So, I started asking questions. I found that when someone makes a claim that something is true, the best way to test that truth is to ask a series of challenging questions. For example, if a man claims that it is virtuous to love the god Zeus, I would ask, what is a virtue? What is love? Are there other gods to love? If they cannot even explain what virtue is, how can they say that it is virtuous to love Zeus? If they cannot explain what love is, how can we know if we are truly loving Zeus, and therefore that we are virtuous? If someone making these claims cannot answer these challenges, then how can they know the truth of their claim? In my life, I didn't publish any works or write much down for others to read, but many young men in Athens - including a very bright student named Plato - used to follow me around and watch closely as I questioned some of the "wisest" men in the city. Plato would eventually pass this method down to his student Aristotle, who was the tutor of Alexander the Great. Alexander spread Greek thought to his vast kingdom. When the Romans took over Alexander’s empire, they expanded it even larger and spread the Greek tradition even further. Sadly, when the Romans fell, the world entered a long, dark period where knowledge stood still once again. But then, something wonderful happened. There was a renaissance of thought and knowledge when people began to revive the works of my students. Science flourished when people realized the power of methodical questioning and testing of claims. In your time, my method of questioning is known as the Socratic (after me!) method and is the basis of modern scientific and philosophical inquiry. And all this because I asked a few questions!! Many people think that when someone asks a question, or many questions like I do, that they are unwise. But I think just the opposite. True wisdom is the knowledge of how little you actually know. It is this realization that allows you to start asking questions and get to the real truth. Asking questions may be the best way to get to the truth, but it is also a fast way to make enemies. I'm afraid that I embarrassed quite a few very important men in Athens, who saw me as kind of a professional smart-aleck. When they saw that young men in the city were beginning to question as I did, I was arrested for corrupting the youth of Athens! My student Plato wrote about the trial. ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★