And after brief consideration, I realize that I don't have it in me to do a deep dive. Besides my love of Stoicism, and cursory awareness of Greek philosophy that I've absorbed along the way, I just can't dig deeper into the subject. The brief encounters I've had with Greek thinking, and with philosophy in general, convince me that I don't possess the intellectual rigor to take it any further.
However, I will tackle the subject via biographies of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.
And this short read on Socrates was brilliant in its simplicity. A brief overview of the man's life, the key points of his philosophical work, and a poignant telling of his final days was all that I required.
Socrates' largest contributions to the Athens and the world at large were:
- His belief that ethical principles must never be broached. Never. Not under any circumstance, whatsoever. If something is wrong, then you simply don't do it, ever. This applies to the behavior of both people and political bodies.
- His belief that one should never retaliate against one who has done you wrong. In the context of perpetual warring among the Greek states, this was an absurdly original thought. Instead of retaliating, try to convert your offender into a friend instead. And again, this applies to both people and political bodies.
- His persistent work to persuade his fellow Athenians to truly understand the reasons for their actions. This manifested itself in his famous Socratic dialog, that asked people to define words with precision. By doing so he inevitably pointed out the fallacies in their logic, encouraging them to think more critically about their actions. Socrates' famous statement that he "knew nothing" wasn't meant to be taken literally, but rather to underscore that we all need to think harder and not simply accept that our actions are right.
These three contributions, and much more besides, set the foundation for new thinking that resonates to this day.
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