The Art of Conversation

What is justice?  What is piety?  What is wisdom?

Is woman the equal of man?

Is there a God or are there gods?

Is God good or a mixture of good and bad - heaping you with blessings when you please him - meting out punishments when you don’t?

It’s the year 440 B.C.E.

How do you find out?

The Answer is Conversation

The man who put it to full use: Socrates

Today, when we have the internet; and schools and colleges; and books and magazines; and videos and photos, it’s hard to imagine Socrates attained so much wisdom just with an observing and questioning mind, and by talking to people.

Yes – talking to people.

A man who was convicted he was given a God-given mandate to seek out the truth about life and help others do the same, Socrates spent his life walking the streets of Athens and talking to people in different walks of life.

From the lowliest to the stateliest, he was interested in finding out how they lived and worked, and what their thoughts and attitudes were to different aspects of life.

What is justice?

Is it an eye for an eye?

Or is it a cure for evil – evil being a state of illness - since adult humans in their natural state are good?

Socrates got into lively discussions with his fellowmen and fellow women about important topics like these.

The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living

Socrates was so dedicated to his mission of seeking out the truth about life – he made it his full time occupation.

This meant he did not have much money and had to live simply and frugally.

He lived abstemiously, owned very few clothes, walked barefoot, ate very little food, and did not have a house to his name.

Great thinkers and speakers of his time identified themselves as Sophists and earned a handsome income from training the sons of wealthy families in the arts of speech and rhetoric.

Socrates, with an intellect that towered above them all, refused to become a Sophist, and earned not a single penny (drachma) from his famous ability to make people think.

In true humility (often misunderstood for mock pride), he used to say “I don’t believe I know enough to teach anyone anything”

God is Good

In his search for truth, Socrates came to believe there was one God and he was good and God had given him a mandate to seek the truth and help others do the same.

This was heresy – to deny the pantheon of Greek gods (with their passions and temperaments), and to believe you had been given a special mandate by God.

Socrates would not have wished to contradict prevailing ideas, or look down on anyone. 

He was a loyal Athenian, who had fought for Athens as a brave and fearless soldier when the need arose.  He loved his fellowmen and fellow women and respected them. 

But he spoke what he believed to be the truth.

And was prepared to pay the consequences for it.

A Hero To The End

Holding his truth and his love for Athens in equal measure throughout his life, when his countrymen turned against him and unjustly condemned him to death for crimes in which he had no part, Socrates still held to his truth, as well as his love for Athens.

He would not desert Athens, nor allow anyone to talk ill of its laws and traditions.

Pleas by his friends to let them help him escape to freedom fell on deaf ears.

Here was a man who was as kind as he was thoughtful, as polite as he was insightful, as humble as he was resolute, and as brave as he was sincere.

He lived life courageously and went courageously to his death.

A hero to the very end!

Or as Paul Johnson describes him, “a man for all times “

A Man For Our Times

You want to know this man.

Besides being the greatest philosopher of all time, he might also be the greatest conversationalist of all time.

And his thoughts and ideas (and conversations) are just as relevant today as they were 2,500 years ago. 

Get acquainted with Socrates.

It could change your life.

P.S. This post first appeared as an Amazon review of Paul Johnson’s Socrates.  There are many books and documentaries which can help you can get acquainted with Socrates.  I read Paul Johnson’s book and enjoyed it so much, I read it twice.

P.S. 2:  As in my other Amazon reviews, I review “my experience of a book” rather than “the book itself”.  That is why my Amazon review of Becoming A Vegetarian – One Woman’s Experience by Anita Saran contains a passage from Lewis Carroll’s Sylvie and Bruno.  I reviewed Saran’s book in the context of my own experience of turning vegetarian, as well as my first hand experience of Saran’s incredible love for animals.

P.S.3: This book is dedicated to all the people I have had conversations with – phone conversations, blog conversations, e-mail conversations, face to face conversations.  My life would not be as full without them (even if I might have had more hair on my head without them :). Here's to more conversations and all the promise they hold, from better dates to better parties to better marriages and families and friendships; to the advancement of knowledge, understanding, wisdom, connectedness and peace.

P.S.4: My post The Unsocratic Coffee Quiz speculates on how Socrates might have quizzed someone on the subject of coffee.

P.S. 5: As always, thanks for reading and have a great day. Hope you had a great Diwali and Thanksgiving.