Questions. Search for truth (Socrates)

The sophists are opposed by the famous Greek philosopher Socrates of Athens. Unlike them, he believed that truth, like the sun in the sky, illuminating everything and warming everyone, can only be one. It is the same for everyone and exists outside of us and regardless of our desires. We didn’t invent it, and it’s not up to us to cancel it. This truth has been before us and will always be. Wherever he lives and whoever a person is, he cannot help but obey her.

Just as, for example, all people, completely different, are united by the fact that they are all born and die, rejoice and grieve, breathe and feel the beating of their hearts, so we are all one and there are no differences between us in the face of one truth, diffused in everything, everything illuminating and pulsating in every human soul. If someone decides to claim that he does not obey it, does not recognize it, that he has his own individual truth, this will be self-deception, an attempt to turn away from the inevitable. It is impossible for any of us, Socrates believed, to renounce this truth common to all of us, just as it is impossible to renounce, for example, the fact that you are a person, just as you cannot renounce your own eyes, hands and feet, heart and mind.

What kind of truth is this? Where is she? What is it? In answer to these questions, Socrates says that it would be too presumptuous for any mortal to believe that he certainly knows this truth and can say exactly what it is. The only thing we can say is that there is such a truth. But to say that it is something definite, known to everyone, found and established once and for all, is impossible. Rather, on the contrary, the only thing we know for sure is about our own ignorance, about the difficulties that confront us when trying to know something. Therefore, one of the most famous sayings of Socrates was: “I know that I know nothing.” But our ignorance of the truth does not mean that it does not exist. We simply don’t know what it is, and the urgent task of every person is precisely the search for this really existing truth, common to everyone, but not completely known.

Moreover, any of us must search for it on our own, because not a single person, no matter how respected he may be, can know exactly what the truth is, and on this basis lead others. And independent search is always filled with doubts, contradictions and long thoughts, but only in this way - thorny and difficult - can a person, if not find the truth, then at least get closer to it. This method is called heuristic(from the Greek heurisko - I find). The philosopher, says Socrates, must assist the seeker in his endeavors: without offering ready-made answers, he only helps him navigate the vast element of thoughts and ideas into which he who wants to find something true enters. Therefore the Socratic method is also maieutics(from the Greek maieutikē - midwife, i.e. related to assistance during childbirth): the philosopher assists in the birth of truth, but his participation in this is by no means decisive, since it must still be born itself in the soul and mind of a person.

But will people search for some unknown and distant truth if everyday life is perfectly clear to them and does not require any special thought at all? Let’s say a person earns enough money to live comfortably, has honor and respect in society, has habitual activities and confidence in the future. He goes to work in the morning and does his job well, receiving considerable pleasure from it, and in the evening he returns to his hearth, where the pleasure of relaxation awaits him. What more? Why think about the meaning of life, your purpose, duty, virtue and who knows what else, if everything is already good enough? The usual course of life takes a person away from these thoughts, overshadows them, while they, perhaps, are the main ones, and everything everyday is vanity and nonsense, the illusion of life, the inauthenticity of existence. Socrates considered it necessary to constantly remind people that, in addition to the usual affairs, there are concerns of a higher order, otherwise we will completely get bogged down in earthly routine and completely forget about the present, true and imperishable, thereby losing the right to be called by the name of a person - a rational being, and therefore cannot help but think about the sublime and eternal. He compared himself to a gadfly that painfully stings a horse calmly grazing in a meadow, not allowing it to stand still, slowly grow fat, grow fat and go to waste. In his conversations, the Athenian thinker subtly led listeners to the understanding that no one can be completely satisfied with their life and with themselves, that there are no limits to questions, doubts and the desire for something more perfect. At the same time, he used techniques and methods that the sophists often resorted to: he put a person in a mental difficulty, puzzled him with contradictions, forced him to doubt the most obvious and assume the impossible. Only sophistry set as its goal to confuse the human mind, to confuse it in order to show the relativity and subjectivity of everything, while Socrates did the same in order to push a person through doubts and mental dead ends to the search for objective and eternal truth.

It is clear that not everyone liked such “harassments” of his. And just as a horse strives to smack an annoying gadfly, so the Athenians decided to get rid of the restless philosopher, who with his questions “ruined” people’s carefree lives. A trial was organized against Socrates, accusing him of impiety - as if he did not honor the state gods, did not respect traditions and corrupted youth. It is clear that he did neither one nor the other, nor the third, but he was condemned too harshly: Socrates drank the cup of poison. After the execution of the philosopher, his fellow citizens immediately repented and gave him all kinds of honors, as, however, always happens in such cases.

The teacher of wisdom and the art of life, Socrates (470/469 - 399 BC) invented the best method of developmental education known to this day (it is also the most difficult), maieutics (literally, the art of midwifery). This is a method of leading the student to the truth, which he discovers for himself by answering questions skillfully asked by the teacher and conducting an investigation of the examples given by the teacher.

Socrates the teacher compared himself to a gadfly, prompting the sleepy to be vigilant, awakening thought. The Gadfly-Socrates “bite” a person who is confident in his knowledge, masquerading as a naive ignorant (Socratic irony), revealing contradictions in the ideas, concepts and reasoning of his interlocutor-student. Otherwise, this initial stage of training is also called the “skate kick.” Its goal is to bring the student to an awareness of the ambiguity, inaccuracy, and inadequacy of his opinions. In a place cleared of confused and even ignorant thoughts, Socrates began, together with his student, to erect a building of reliable knowledge, tested on the touchstone of contradictions, built on the foundation of theoretical explanation and proof.

Leading (agogics) students from the habitually incomprehensible and only seemingly understandable, from opinion, to scientific knowledge itself, to beliefs, equips students with the method of research, logical reasoning, and evidence. The teacher thereby awakens the ability of young people to think, to discover, to intellectual freedom, to creativity.

Caring about the originality of his student interlocutors, Socrates did not even try to make them like himself. Socrates inspired students, leading them from one difficult (!) success to another. He was both sensitive and tactful, stern and truthful, fair and demanding.

“Socrates, in fact, did not teach the truth that his disciples acquired from him - a person must draw from the depths of his own soul, contemplating and reflecting, everything that will be valid and true for him in life, and then prove, prove it in practice "(Hegel).

Socratic conversation (or "Socratic dialectical conversation") as a teaching method is called heuristic. Its modern modification is problem-based learning techniques.

The developmental power of this method is that it introduces young people to dialogue with other people and with themselves (internal dialogue) as the highest form of thinking. He teaches to contrast each thesis with an antithesis and to consider the created contradiction in order to resolve it, but not as a choice of polarities, but as a unity of opposites. That is, take into account the essential components of both opposites.

The great advantage of Socratic conversation is that it forces the student to concretize abstract ideas and develop them to the level of a concept - understanding the essence of things, phenomena, processes, revealing their explanatory principle. To the level of knowledge about the universal, general laws of existence.

Socrates was one of the first in world history to raise the question of ways to form general concepts. He postulated the presence in every healthy person of reason (nous) as the most important human ability. At the same time, nous is the Universal Mind. The universal can therefore be assimilated by every human head. Everyone is capable of virtue and excellence to the extent that he gains access to knowledge (understanding) of virtue and excellence (arete).

No one wants to be bad voluntarily, no one makes mistakes voluntarily; bad deeds are the product of a mental mistake committed out of ignorance, therefore, out of necessity. The trouble is that immediate needs and immediate interests obscure from a person the long-term consequences of his actions. So the moon seems larger to children than other satellites and planets.

The mind requires the ability to measure in order to see the distant and complex as clearly as the close and simple. This is wisdom - a clear vision of the truth. Wisdom inevitably leads to virtue: after all, it is impossible to go astray when it is clearly visible.

So, perfection can be taught and taught; it is knowledge that can be firmly assimilated.

And since happiness coincides with arete (perfection, valor), happiness can and should be learned, like any art. Life is an art, the theory of which is philosophy - the only source of correct moral orientation of the individual.

Therefore, without philosophical education there is no education.

Philosophy is designed to help a person understand himself in order to create himself. It is the source of the formation and strengthening of conscience - understood duty.

Philosophical education is also necessary to overcome the fear of death with the power of thought.

Socrates' idea about the determination of moral action by thinking had a lasting beneficial influence on the development of realistic psychology and pedagogy, especially on Spinoza and the rationalists of the 19th-20th centuries.

Socrates connected the moral ideal with moral practice, knowledge with consciousness, reason with sensuality. He made his life and death an argument in favor of his ideas, and Kant, Pestalozzi, Korczak and Schweitzer followed him in this regard.

Socrates' immediate students - Plato, Xenophon, Euclid of Megara, Antisthenes, Aristippus, Phaedo of Elis - left an indelible mark on the high culture of mankind.

See also publications: A. V. Zhdanov. Socrates as a teacher. Kharkov, 1892; N. Markov. The teacher of the ancient classical world was the philosopher Socrates. Chernigov, 1884.

The philosopher Socrates is famous for studying not only the nature of the world, but also the nature of man. It was he who laid down many of the principles of modern morality.

And if you have doubts about whether you should say certain things to a person, just remember Socrates' sieve. This little parable will make your life a lot easier.

One man asked Socrates:

– Do you know what your friend told me about you?

“Wait,” Socrates stopped him, “first sift what you are going to say through three sieves.”

- Three sieves?

– Before you say anything, you need to sift it three times. First through the sieve of truth. Are you sure this is Truth?

- No, I just heard it.

“So you don’t know if it’s true or not.” Then sift through a second sieve - a sieve kindness. Do you want to say something good about my friend?

- No, on the contrary.

“So,” Socrates continued, “you’re going to say something bad about him, but you’re not even sure that it’s true.” Let's try the third sieve - sieve benefits. Do I really need to hear what you have to say?

- No, this is not necessary.

“So,” Socrates concluded, “there is no truth, no kindness, no benefit in what you want to say.” Why talk then?

Tell people only truthful, positive and useful things!

The Delphic oracle called him the wisest of people, and he was modest and simple, a faithful servant of the Gods, the Fatherland, honor and justice. Socrates also knew how to ask questions. Questions about the main thing.

Athens, fifth century BC - the time of Pericles, Phidias, Sophocles, the golden age of Greek culture.

A boy, Socrates, was born into a poor family of a stonecutter and a midwife. In Athens in those days the famous Phargelia was celebrated - a holiday dedicated to the birth of Apollo and Artemis. Being born at such a time was considered a symbolic event, and the newborn naturally fell under the protection of Apollo, the god of muses, arts and harmony, highly revered in Athens.

In his youth, Socrates worked with his father and was even considered a good sculptor. Then he studied music, mathematics, astronomy.

His passion for eloquence led him to meet Aspasia herself, the wife of the Athenian ruler Pericles, famous for her beauty and love of philosophy. Many years later, Socrates recalled rhetoric lessons from Aspasia and how he received slaps on the head from her for his forgetfulness.

Youth flew by quickly, and now Socrates, together with other young Athenians, pronounces the words of the civil oath: “I will not disgrace the sacred weapon and will not abandon the comrade with whom I will march in the ranks, but I will defend both temples and shrines - alone and together with many. I will leave behind the Fatherland not diminished, but greater and better than what I inherited. And I will obey the authorities that constantly exist, and obey the established laws, as well as those new ones that the people will establish according to their consent. And if anyone abolishes the laws or disobeys them, I will not allow this, but I will defend them alone and together with everyone. And I will honor my father’s shrines.”

Throughout his life, Socrates will be faithful to his oath and his duty to his homeland. He will be a brave soldier on the battlefields of the Peloponnesian War and a humble philosopher in the service of justice for his beloved compatriots.

Socrates' appearance can hardly be called attractive. Rather, he was ugly. Short in stature, with an upturned nose, thick lips and a knobby forehead, bald, he resembled a comic theater mask. He always walked barefoot and in an old tunic. This appearance was so common for Socrates that his enthusiastic listener Aristodemus, once seeing the teacher in sandals, was surprised. It turned out that Socrates “dressed up” for a feast with the poet Agathon on the occasion of his victory in the Athens Theater.

In Plato’s Symposium, the Athenian commander Alcibiades, describing Socrates in military service, says the following: “In endurance he surpassed not only me, but everyone in general. When we found ourselves cut off and involuntarily, as happens on campaigns, we starved, no one could compare with his endurance.”

He did not have any special talents - he did not write poems, did not win the Olympic Games, and did not master the subtleties of oratory. He could not boast of anything that people valued at that time. But he had one priceless gift. Gift of the Interlocutor. The ability to listen and hear. Ask questions, look for the right path in the labyrinths of thought and, together with the person, finally discover the truth.

“If I wanted my shoe fixed, who should I contact?” “To the shoemaker, O Socrates,” the simple-minded young men answered sincerely. This is where it all began. This could be followed, for example, by the question “Who should repair the Ship of the State?”

His mysterious manner of speaking confidentially, intimately, friendlyly and at the same time ironically confused his interlocutors. Socrates talked about what beauty, justice, friendship, wisdom and courage are. He taught how to live according to conscience and in accordance with civic duty. How to honor the gods, respect the laws, believe in the immortality of the soul.

“Concerning the human soul, which more than anything else in man participates in the deity, it is known,” said Socrates, “that it reigns in us, but we do not see it. Thinking about all this, a person should not treat the invisible with contempt; on the contrary, one must recognize his actions in phenomena and honor the divine power.”

One of Socrates' most famous sayings is “I know only that I know nothing.” Proof of his extraordinary simplicity and modesty. He considered himself only striving for divine Wisdom. And I saw the Path from Man to God as infinitely long—and yet surmountable.

One of the students asked Socrates: “Explain to me why I have never seen signs of sadness on your forehead? You are always in a good mood." Socrates replied: “Because I have nothing that I would regret if I lost it.”

Socrates did not have much luck with women, although he was married twice. The name Xanthippe became a common noun for a grumpy, always dissatisfied wife. Alcibiades once remarked to him that Xanthippe’s abuse was unbearable. “And I got used to it like the eternal squeak of a wheel. Can you stand the cackling of a goose?” - said Socrates. “But from the geese I get eggs and chicks for the table,” Alcibiades chuckled. “And Xanthippe gives birth to children for me,” was the answer.

Little is known about Myrta, the second wife of Socrates. But everyone knows his words about marriage, which have become popular: “Get married no matter what. If you get a good wife, you will be an exception, and if she is bad, you will become a philosopher.”

How often with his sense of humor he infuriated the powers that be! Once ironizing the omnipotence of the Athenian demos, which by its decision turned ignorant people into strategists, Socrates, when the conversation came up about the shortage of horses, advised that this issue should be resolved at a public meeting - by voting to turn donkeys into horses.

However, such attacks by Socrates never meant his desire to replace democracy with any other political form. It was rather about the need to improve democracy, about the possibility of having competent government. “In states, those rulers are the best to whom the citizens are most obliged to obey the laws. And the state in which the citizens most obey the laws is happy in times of peace and unshakable in times of war.”

The entire city served as Socrates' lecture chair. Sometimes an agora, a market square, sometimes a craftsman's shop, sometimes an ordinary Athenian street overlooking the Parthenon. Anyone could become his interlocutor; Socrates did not discriminate between people. “Let it be known to you that it does not matter to him at all whether a person is handsome or not,” we read in Plato’s “Symposium,” “you cannot even imagine to what extent it is indifferent to him, whether he is rich and whether he has any another advantage that the crowd extols.”

One day, Socrates blocked the path of a young stranger with a stick and asked: “Where should you go for flour and butter?” The young man answered smartly: “To the market.” - “What about wisdom and virtue?” The interlocutor was embarrassed and did not know what to say. “Follow me, I’ll show you!” - Socrates smiled. Such was the meeting with Xenophon, who became not only his friend and student, but also his future biographer.

“When I listen to Socrates, my heart beats stronger, and tears flow from my eyes from his speeches... he often brought me into such a state that it seemed to me that I could no longer live the way I live” - under these words of the famous Many of Socrates' interlocutors could have subscribed to Alcibiades.

Hetera Lamia said with a smile: “The admirers of your wisdom, Socrates, do not part with you. And yet I am stronger than you: after all, you cannot take my friends away from me, and if I want to, I will lure yours to me.” Socrates replied: “It’s quite understandable: after all, you lead them down the mountain of vice, and I force them to climb the mountain of virtue, and this is too difficult a road.”

Socrates had many friends. But he had even more enemies. These people did not want to become better than they were. One day they decided that it was easier to silence Socrates with the help of hemlock poison than to get rid of the evil that the philosopher pointed out.

The denunciation of Socrates was signed by the tragic poet Meletus, “young and unknown, with smooth hair, a scanty beard and a hooked nose.”

“This accusation was written and sworn by Meletus, son of Meletus, a Pythean, against Socrates, son of Sophroniscus... Socrates is accused of not recognizing the gods that the city recognizes, and introducing other, new gods. He is also accused of corrupting youth. The required punishment is death.” Socrates had to appear in court and speak in his own defense.

Five hundred and one was the number of jurors who tried Socrates. Among them were potters, gunsmiths, tailors, cooks, carpenters, shipbuilders, small traders, teachers, musicians - all those with whom Socrates entered into conversations in the squares and bazaars.

There were no specific substantiated accusations. Socrates fought with shadows and rumors.

He was already over 70. He did not try to pity the jury with his poverty, old age, three children who would remain orphans, and the only oratory he was capable of was telling the truth.

Socrates remembered that when he was a warrior, he, faithful to the order, always remained at his post. “Now that God has put me in line, obliging me, as I believe, to live, engage in philosophy, testing myself and people... it would be just as shameful to leave the line as before during the battle... I am devoted to you, Athenians , and I love you, but I will obey God rather than you, and as long as I breathe and remain strong, I will not stop philosophizing, persuading and convincing each of you whom I meet... And I think that in the whole city there is no you have a greater good than my service to God.”

The jury listened impatiently as the old sage compared himself with the gadfly whom God had assigned to the Athenian state: “But it may very well happen that you, angry, like people suddenly awakened from sleep, will slam me and easily kill me... Then you will all You will spend the rest of your life in hibernation, unless God, taking care of you, sends you someone else.”

Jacques-Louis David. Death of Socrates. 1787

The jury returned a death sentence. 221 votes were cast for the acquittal of Socrates, 280 against.

Socrates remained calm. He said that from birth nature doomed him, like all people, to death. And death is a blessing, for it gives the soul the opportunity to meet in another world with the souls of great sages and heroes of the past. “It’s time to leave here,” he finished, “for me to die, for you to live, and which of these is better, no one knows except God.”

When his friend Apollodorus, with tears in his eyes, was indignant at the unfair judicial decision, Socrates quickly reassured him: “Would it be more pleasant for you to see that I was convicted fairly?”

The philosopher waited in prison for a month for the execution of his sentence. Devoted students and friends visited him every day. They offered escape plans. Socrates was adamant. He wanted to meet death with dignity and not oppose the decision of the Athenians. He was faithful to the oath he took at the dawn of his youth and loved his hometown too much to allow himself to break the laws of Athens and his own vows in order to save his life.

to the magazine "Man Without Borders"