Can Philosophy Save My Life?

Philosophy matters more now than ever. It isn’t just abstract debates and old books—it’s about asking the right questions to make sense of the world and our place in it. In this first episode, we break down what philosophy is, why it matters, and how it shows up in everyday life. From decision-making to morality to the meaning of life, philosophy is everywhere—whether you realize it or not. If you've ever wondered why things are the way they are, you’re already thinking like a philosopher.

what is philosophy, philosophy for beginners, why philosophy matters, everyday philosophy, introduction to philosophy, critical thinking, how to think deeply, practical philosophy, philosophy podcast, meaning of life, Plato's Apology.

Transcript

What if I told you that questioning everything could save your life? Like, seriously? Would you want to know more? In this very first episode of American Socrates, we'll explore Plato's argument that philosophy is a practical tool for living a good life. The only life, he said, that's even worth living. All right, let's start by tackling one of the biggest myths about philosophy, that it's just abstract nonsense, and it's totally disconnected from the real world. I hear this all the time. Philosophy is just a bunch of big words and hypothetical questions that don't really matter to regular people, not in their real lives. And yeah, I get why people might think that. On the surface, it seems like philosophers are just sitting around, debating things, like, if a tree falls in the forest and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? It's no wonder that people roll their eyes and say things like, who cares? But here's the thing. Philosophy is actually all about the real world. It's about how we think, how we make decisions, how we understand the things that really matter in our lives. And today, I'm going to show you how it can impact your life. If I'm successful, by the end of this episode, you'll have a much better idea of why philosophy isn't just for scholars and ivory towers. It's something you can apply to all aspects of living. And more importantly, I'm hoping you'll walk away with a personal sense of how philosophy could be valuable to you, today and tomorrow, and for the rest of your life. Whether it's navigating tough decisions, figuring out your own values or goals, or even understanding the people around you better, philosophy has something to offer us all. So why do so many people think that philosophy is useless? Well, the answer may not be simple, but it is obvious. Philosophy just doesn't seem very connected to the stuff that takes up our daily lives. I mean, when you're juggling work and family and bills, when you're trying to figure out what to make for dinner or whether you can afford to eat out again for a third time this week, you're probably not spending too much time pondering the nature of reality. Most people just don't feel like they have time for the big questions. I mean, we could ask, is reality a computer simulation, and we will. But who cares? I mean, like, unless I can save money on groceries, I'm not sure that knowing whether reality is a computer simulation is actually helpful. You know, I have to live here in the real world. In simulation or not, I need something that's going to help me with that. This isn't exactly top of the mindind stuff, you know, when you've got to go to work and you've got to get your kids to soccer practice, you know, you've got bills to pay. And yet, while those classical philosophical questions might seem worthless, they point to some of the much deeper structures that are already organizing our busy lives. You just didn't know that they were there. Philosophy is all about how we approach the biggest questions, the ones that lie behind our day-to-day experiences. The stuff that really does matter to us, whether we realize it or not. So developing an awareness of this is almost always beneficial. Let's make this a little more concrete. Imagine I ask you, Why do you go to work? You'd probably say to make money, right? Okay. But then if I ask, Why do you want to make money? You'd probably look at me like I was a little dense and then say, Well, because I need to buy things to survive and to thrive. OK. But then if I ask you, why do you want to do that? You might start to feel uncomfortable. But seriously, why is it that you want to live and to thrive? Having an answer to that question is what is going to shape everything else, what thriving looks like, whether your job actually allows you to thrive or not. In this way, the big questions really do have an impact on the day-in and day-out life that you were living. Okay, so here's the thing about academic philosophy. What you typically get in high school or in college is a lot of really dense technical stuff. You know, it's debates about metaphysics, logic puzzles, and truth tables. They throw around big names like, you know, Emmanuel Kant or Heidegger or Drida or, you know, something like that. And if you've ever sat through one of those classes, it's really easy to walk away thinking, okay, but what the hell does this have to do with that? anything? And honestly, even as an academic philosopher myself who teaches this sort of stuff in college, that's a fair question to be asking. I'd even argue it's the most important question to be asking, because philosophy is really supposed to be relevant. So, while academic philosophy has its place, it can feel like it's more about esoteric theories, you know, an arguments for secondborn princelings of some elite family than those of us who have to work for a living. These classes can even be like learning to build a house with a book of blueprints, but no one has ever really taught you how to use a saw or a hammer. The blueprints are definitely useful, but only if you're really ready for them. And for most Americans, their education has not prepared them for any of this. Instead, there's all this focus on what we should know, but not nearly enough on what we should do with that knowledge to help us, you know, live a better, more thoughtful, more intentional life. In many ways, it feels like our education is not about us at all. What I'm interested in, though, is this kind of philosophy that meets you where you are, the lived in practical kind of philosophy that helps you navigate those tough questions that life tends to throw at us. Like, how do I treat other people? And what kind of life do I really want to have? You know, and how do you make sense of all of this chaos? That's the philosophy that I think more people need to engage with. And all those dusty old textbooks really can help us with our decisions, only the way that it's generally taught that kind of understanding falls through the cracks. So I'm going to try to engage us in another way of doing philosophy. Let's talk about Socrates. And let's be real. He wasn't exactly what we'd call a man of the people. By all accounts, Socrates was ugly. Yeah. He was seen as immature, pugnacious, obnoxious, poor, and above all, arrogant. This self-righteous, balding, chubby little stonebreer from a no-good family had the audacity to wander around the Agora that is, the marketplace in ancient Athens, where people were just, you know, trying to go around buying their olives and cheese for dinner. And it cost them with questions that nobody could answer. And not just any people, either. He had the nasty habit of targeting the so-called experts, embarrassing them with tough questions. You'd imagine they should be able to answer. He made them look like fools, and that earned him a reputation, not just for being annoying, but for tearing down the proud leaders of his society. But he also gained a group of young admirers who absolutely adored him. They thought this guy was the brightest star in the sky. Meanwhile, the regular folks of ancient Athens they didn't think as highly of Socrates or of his philosophy. If that sounds at all familiar, it's kind of like how people feel about the current philosophy. It's annoying. It's irrelevant. Maybe even a little dangerous. So is it any wonder that the people of Athens put Socrates to death for practicing philosophy? Now, most of what we know about Socrates, actually comes from Plato, one of his most devoted followers, and incidentally, the father of the Western intellectual culture, Plato recorded Socrates' defense at his trial in a famous work called The Apology. Just to clarify, "apology" here doesn't mean that Socrates was giving some sort of Mia culpa or expressing some sort of regret. No, no, no. In Greek, "apology" means a defense. And so Socrates wasn't begging for forgiveness. He was defending philosophy as a way of life. The apology is hugely simple and significant, and has inspired people for millennia, you know, as far back as Julius Caesar. For the first time in this particular work, we're going to see human beings depicted as rational agents using conversation to solve their problems. Up until then, humans were mostly depicted as playthings of the gods. driven by divine whims and fate. But here was Socrates standing up in front of an Athenian jury, defending himself against two major charges, one of impiety and the other of corrupting the youth. Okay, let's take a closer look at those two charges. The first one, impiety. Now, impiety is basically the reverse of goodness or wholesomeness. It's acting in a way that it is disrespectful or goes against what is considered sacred or proper in your society. For Athens, a deeply religious city-state, this was a pretty serious accusation. They saw Socrates as someone who was undermining the entire value system, right? Someone who didn't honor the gods in a way that a good citizen should. In more concrete terms, what happened was Socrates didn't go and ask the priests at the temple what the right thing to do. He was what we might call a freethinker, who took his own measure of things. As for the second charge, that of corruption of the young, so I need to give you a little context. Democratic Athens had just lost the Peloponnesian war against I aristocratic Sparta. It was a brutal, almost 30-year war, and it ended in a humiliating defeat for proud Athens. And for months afterwards, the Athenians had lost their democracy, their self-rule. When it was restored, the people were kind of looking for someone to blame. You know, they were asking questions like, like, how could the smartest, bravest, and most capable young men in the world lose a war? Well, enter Socrates, wandering around, saying things like, hey, this isn't a just war. The Spartans aren't our enemies. Maybe we shouldn't even be fighting this war. Right? You can imagine how well that would go down with the older generations in Athens. They are thinking, like, no wonder our young men didn't win the war, right? They didn't fight as hard as they could have. They should have, right? They've been listening to this guy. Socrates is out there telling them not to believe in the cause, right? That's why we lost. The accusation wasn't just about Socrates' teaching philosophy. It was about him undermining the Athenian war effort and weakening the city's state itself by asking critical questions, right, by examining what it was that the Athenians were doing. During his defense, Socrates argued that these charges amounted to nothing, and the executors should have been laughed out of court if it weren't for his reputation. The real reason he was on trial, he said, was because of philosophy. His reputation was something like we see him depicted in Aristophany's play in The Clouds, which had painted him as a wise man, a thinker about things in the heavens, and an investigator of things beneath the earth. And someone who always makes the weaker argument the stronger. Basically, Aristophanes portrays Socrates as a silver-tongued devil. Someone who makes smart people look stupid. who makes good people seem bad, and rich men seem poor, and so on. This image of Socrates had stuck in the minds of most Athenians, and Socrates knew that this reputation, this image of him as a dangerous trickster, was what he really had to defend himself against, not impiety or corruption. So what actually comes out of Socrates' defense of philosophy? Well, one of the major takeaways here is something that we call Socratic wisdom. The story goes like this. Socrates' buddy, character Carophon, went to Delphi, the most famous Greek temple that was dedicated to Apollo, who, I should probably mention, is also the god of truth. Anyway, Carapon asked the god there, is anyone wiser than Socrates? And the god's answer came back, no, no one is wiser. He comes back to Athens, and he tells this to Socrates. Naturally, Socrates is pretty surprised to hear it. He even denies that the god was right. How can I be the wisest man on earth when I don't even claim to know anything at all? So what does he do? He decides to put this to the test. He questions all the so-called experts, the politicians, the poets, the craftsmen, trying to figure out what they know and what it is that could possibly make him wiser than they are. So imagine him, like going around, talking to all these people, asking tough questions, many of them getting embarrassed, many of them getting upset. What does he find out from all of this? Well, to his dismay, he finds out that these so-called experts don't really know that much about what they're talking about either. And this is terrible. This is tragic. The wisest people in his society don't really know that much. And then a thought occurs to him, that he, and he alone, knows that he doesn't know the answers. This makes him closer to the truth than all of these other wise men who believe they know. They think they have answers, and they don't. He's the only one wise enough to realize his own ignorance. This is where we get the idea of Socratic ignorance. And it turns out that ignorance in this sense is a really huge advantage. Because if you're aware of your own ignorance, then you're able to look for the truth. Well, if you believe something falsely, you're not even looking to correct your mistakes. And so Socratic wisdom isn't about knowing all the answers. It's about knowing the depths of your own ignorance so that you can look for answers when you need them. In practical terms, this is your ability to question what you think you know. It allows you to stay curious, not to allow yourself to become complacent with obvious or ready-made answers, and always to be willing to dig deeper. That's the heart of what philosophy can do for you. It makes you question everything, even yourself. And in so doing, it's your best shot at getting to the truth. When we have answers already, we stop looking for new ones, and that is the closing of your mind. That's when these experts showed Socrates that they were all closed-minded, confident in the feeling that they had knowledge. They knew what was right. And so they were less wise than he was, The man who knew that he knew nothing. These poor fools, they didn't even know that much. Another thing that we should take a look at that comes out of the apology is what's called Socratic paradox. Now, that sounds fancy, but the idea behind it is actually pretty simple. Socrates thought that rational people always act deliberately, meaning, like if you're a rational person, you're always trying to figure out the best course of action before you do something. You weigh the pros and and the cons, you ask for advice, or you consider the alternatives. The point is, is that human activity is never willy-nilly. It's not left up to chance. It's derived by a process of considering, even when that consideration is done poorly. Think about it. If you're making a decision, you're going to do what seems right to you in that moment, right? And so Socrates says that rational people always do what they think is the right thing. And if that's true, it means that no one, ever, intentionally does what they think is wrong. That bears repeating because it's pretty foreign to our general thinking about the world. No one ever acts out of a sense of doing something they believe to be wrong. No one wakes up in the morning and says, you know what? I'm just going to screw things up just for the hell of it. No, we all act based on what seems right to us, even when we're wrong, even when we're doing something evil. And this is true, even if we know that our actions are going to be considered wrong by others, right? The guy who's going to knock over the 7 Eleven knows that other people will think what he's doing is wrong. But to him, it seems like that this might be, and it might even be his best option, his only good option, right? Which leads to an interesting conclusion. We're all good in our intentions. We're all trying to do what is right. So, where does evil come in? What is the source, the root of all evil from this point of view? It's ignorance, right? It's not knowing what is actually right and acting anyway. And that's sort of the paradox here. You know, evil arises out of these good intentions. We're trying to do good. We're trying to do the right thing, but we're wrong about what that is. We haven't looked at the matter deeply enough. We haven't tried to understand it in such a way that we can actually determine what is good. Of courseording to Socrates, evil comes from people thinking they know what is good, but actually just being wrong about it. Evil then, is best viewed as a result of acting in.gnorance. When you think you know something, but you simply don't. If this is the case, then, the cure for evil is philosophy. Socratic wisdom saves us from those false beliefs by making us cautious. We're cooling our jets about how right we think we are. Leaving is open to the idea that we could be wrong about the. That makes us less likely to act wrongly, be it maliciously or just in the name of justice. Socrates takes this a step further. He says that if it's the case, you know, if someone is doing wrong because they don't know what right is, then shouldn't we be instructing them rather than punishing them? If ignorance is at the heart of bad actions, then the cure isn't jail, or torture, or death. It's knowledge, it's understandinging, it's education. And this brings me to the third big thing that falls out of the apology, and that is the defense of the gadfly. Socrates embraces his reputation as a pest. He tries to put a positive spin on it. He likens himself to being a gadfly, you know, one of those nasty little horseflies that that likes to bite and stings the hell out of us for weeks. Anyone who's ever been to the beach in Massachusetts at the wrong time of year knows exactly what I'm talking about. Socrates says that Athens is like a great, slow moving draft horse just lumbering about, right? Picture it. Picture this massive animal lazily wandering around the pasture, not really going anywhere, just grazing all day long, not on the best grasses, but on whatever happens to be nearby. Now, Inter Socrates, the gadfly. He's the annoying little pest that nips the horse's ears, making it twitch and shift, and most importantly, move. Socrates is trying to say that as much as the people of Athens may feel stung by his questions, he's the one pushing them to move towards greener pastors. He's the one forcing them to reconsider those beliefs, the false beliefs that they may be carrying around. He's getting them to question what they think they know. And it in the long run, he's the one driving them towards a better life. So punishing him, he says, would actually be worse for them than it would be for himself. The Gadfly defense is Socrates' defense of dissent, the value of questioning people, of being a rebel. Because without someone challenging our beliefs, without that bite to push us forward, we're just standing still, stuck in place or worse. We're all going mad together. And that's just how the greatest evil comes, not when you or I or even both of us are wrong, but when we all go wrong as a people. So despite Socrates's passionate defense, the jury ultimately findss him guilty. Now, according to the Athenian court system, both sides are supposed to propose a punishment. His accusers ask for death. Most people in Socrates' position would, of course, beg for mercy. Many would play to the jury's sympathy by marching out their wives and children and plead with the jury not to leave them husbandless or father. But Socrates, no. He doubles down. Instead of pleading, he says, you know what I really deserve, a reward? I've done something good for you people, and you should reward me. It's classic. Socrates, a bit arrogant, maybe, but true to his principles until the end. At this point, Socrates, knowing that the Athenians won't quite get his defense, walks them through a series of possible punishments. The first up he considers is death, what his opponents are asking for. He says that he doesn't fear it. You know, it could be a good thing. It could be a bad thing. He's not sure. He considers imprisonment. But he says, why would I want to live as a slave to others? I think I would rather just die. He considers a fine. Well, he says, I couldn't pay it, you know, so it would just be prison all over again. And again, I think I'd rather just die. He considers exile. Well, he says, who's going to take me in if my own people don't want me? And so he rules all of those out. and then he considers something else. What about giving up philosophy? Well, Socrates knows that he could save his own life by simply being quiet. And honestly, no one here probably wants to kill him, not even his accusers. What they really want is for him to simply apologize, promise to stop annoying people, and to shut up about all the problems with democracies. That's probably all it would have taken. Socrates instead says this. It is the greatest good for a man to discuss virtue every day, for the unexamined life is not worth living for human beings. In other words, a life without philosophophy is one without purpose and direction. Without individual truths, you can't find virtue or goodness. The best, you're just soullessessly playing out a script written for you by others. And at worst, you'll end up loathing your own existence. Without virtue, your life is nothing but a slow progression of miseries and misunderstandings until you finally kick off the planet. The unexamined life is in Socrates's view, no better than the life of an animal. It's unfit for a human being. He boldly argues that it is better to die than reduce yourself to mirror animal existence, mindlessly pursuing your base desires. He felt so strongly about this that he refused, even in the face of his own death, to give up questionsing and examining himself and others in this never- ending pursuit of truth. In his final moments at the trial, at the urging of his richer friends like Platoato and Crito, Socrates offers a substantial fine that his friends are going to pay for him. The jury is not swayed. They return a verdict of death. And so a few weeks later, Socrates calmly drinks the poisoned hemlock and slowly suffocates the death for his philosophy. So what is philosophy, then? Is it a body of knowledge, a method of inquiry, a system of logical proofs? Well, sort of, but not exactly any of those. At its core, philosophy is a devotion. It's a devotion to truth. It's the relentless pursuit of truth, a commitment to never settle for an answer, but to keep questioning until you simply fail to imagine the next question. But how does philosophy help us in our daily life? Well, think of everything you want in life. Maybe it's a nice house, right? Maybe you just want good relationships, a loving family. Maybe you want to have a successful career. Maybe you want to make money. You want to be rich. Maybe you want to be famous, glory on the football field or something like that. Whatever it is, truth is going to be necessary and essential. if you hope to achieve those ends and to maintain them. I like to picture a truth as kind of a locked door, behind which are all of the good things that you want out of life. The path of the philosopher, the one who pursues truth relentlessly, is the one who attains the key to unlocking that door. Now, you might wonder, can questioning everything really save your life like I suggested when we began this? I mean, after all, didn't I just tell you a long story about how philosophy got Socrates killed? But the answer is, yes, if by life, you mean something more than just your heart beating and your lungs breathing. If by life, you mean the quality of your life, the richness of your experience.ences, and the connections that fill us with meaning and purpose, then, yes, philosophy, and only philosophy can make your life one truly worth living. So in the end, philosophy might seem abstract, but it deals with the hardest questions in life. The challenge is, in its complexity, but that complexity can lead to deeper understanding and to better critical thinking. Philosophy can help you live better, think more clearly, and navigate this complicated world.. Thanks for listening to American Socrates. If you found today's episode interesting, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone you think might also love a little wisdom in their life. Join us next week as we continue to explore the world of philosophy by examining the question, what does philosophy teach?