Socrates Part One.— The Man Who Changed the Question (A History of Philosophy)

Welcome to the life and thinking of Socrates, and this is the moment when everything changes.  Up to now, we’ve wandered through the wild and wonderful world of the Presocratics. Rivers that flow, universes that freeze, cosmic forces that fall in and out of love, atoms dancing in the void, and Sophists who could argue you into believing your own sandals had a life of their own.

But when Socrates arrives, philosophy stops being a speculative guessing game about what the universe is made of and becomes a moral and spiritual quest about what we are made of.

Socrates is not just another philosopher; he is the beginning of a new way of thinking about being human. He is the man who believed that truth is worth dying for, that virtue is worth living for, and that the soul is the most important thing about us. And because Socrates is too large, too rich, too important to fit into a single episode, we will spend four full episodes exploring his life, his method, his ideas, and his death — a mini‑series within the series.

Transcript

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Hi friends, welcome to the Living in Faith Everyday podcast on our walkthrough and reaction to the history of philosophy that I've been studying recently. Today we reach Socrates, the man who changed the questions that people ask. Welcome to the life and thinking of Socrates, and this is the moment where everything changes. Up to now we've been wandering through the wild and wonderful world of all these pre-Socratics, haven't we?

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Rivers that flow, universes that freeze, cosmic forces that fall in and out of love with each other's, atoms dancing in the void, and the sophists who could argue and to believe that everything had a life of its own, even your own sandals. But today, the story and the history of philosophy, I think, turns more inward, because today Socrates stepped onto the stage. And when he arrives, philosophy stops being speculative, stops being a sort of guessing game, and more about what the universe is made of. And it becomes a moral and a spiritual quest about what we are made of. Socrates is the man who, in a sense, shifts the centre of gravity from cosmology to individual character, from matter to morality, some have said, from the elements to the inner life, from the outside world to the soul within. Socrates is not really just a philosopher, he's certainly not another philosopher. He's probably the beginning of a new way of thinking about what it means to be human. He's the man who believes that the truth is worth dying for, and that virtue is the thing that we should be living for, and that the soul is the most important thing about us. And because Socrates is too large, he's too rich, too important, I can't really fit him into a single episode. I think we're going to spend four episodes exploring his life. First of all, his life, and then his methods, his ideas, and then his death. It's a very important death. It's a sort of mini-series within this series. So here's the journey ahead. Part one today, we look at the life of Socrates, the man behind the questions, a short biography, and we'll begin with this guy himself. Because before the method, before the ideas, before the trial that he was faced, there is Socrates, the ordinary human being, the stonemason with rough hands, but a mind as sharp as any tool he might have used. There was also Socrates the soldier who showed real courage in battle, and there is Socrates the husband of Stanthipope. And that marriage is the source of many ancient jokes. Then there is Socrates, the barefoot wanderer of Athens, the man who refused to charge fees for his knowledge, the strange figure who claimed to be guided by a sort of divine inner voice, but he was also the nuisance who believed that Athens needed to be woken up. This episode, like the man, will be earthy at times, humorous, I hope, but also deeply human. It's about a man who lived simply, spoke plainly, and cared fiercely about the soul of humanity. The next time we'll return in part two and look at the Socratic method, how to win a soul, not an argument. We'll explore the method that made him famous. Socrates didn't lecture, he didn't even write books, he didn't give the ancient equivalent of sort of TED talks, he simply asked questions, and those questions exposed the contradictions and revealed the hidden assumptions, as well, in a sense as humbling the pride. But he also encouraged the teachable and led people towards understanding and importantly self-knowledge. So in that, in our second episode, we'll explore the Socratic questioning technique, his use of irony, and why the sophists that we heard about recently feared him so much, but also why the young people adored him, and why the political elites, the politicians of his day wanted him gone. And we can see how his method that he developed still shapes things like education, therapy, even how we study and disciple ourselves within the church today. This is Socrates the teacher, gentle, relentless, and morally serious. Then in episode 3, we look at the ideas of Socrates, his thinking on virtue, knowledge, and the good life. We turn to the heart of his philosophy. Socrates believed that virtue is knowledge and that ignorance is evil. He also said that the soul must be nurtured and cared for, and the good life is actually the examined life. He says that justice is the thing that brings harmony, and that no one does wrong willingly, they do it by battling against the inner soul, the inner life. He believed that truth, once recognized, could transform us. This episode will be reflective, pastoral, but spiritually resonant. It's where Christian listeners maybe will feel like I did a sort of kinship between Socrates' moral seriousness and the later Christian conviction that the inner life matters more than the trappings of earthly and outward success. And then in part four, we look at the deaths of Socrates, a cup, a choice he made, and the legacy that death represented. We'll meet the moment that really changed everything. The final episode, we will look at the political climate of Athens and the charges of impiety and corruption made against him. His trial, recorded in his students, Plato's writing called The Apology, we'll see his defense, truth over persuasion, and the verdict of that court and his refusal to try and escape the consequences. We'll analyze his final conversation with his friends and why he indeed took the cup and drank the hemlock. But we'll also examine his legacy, because it is one that of course has outlived Athens of its day. It's a solemn, serious legacy, moving and unforgettable, close to an amazing life. Socrates died as he lived, with calm, clarity, and courage. A man who would rather suffer injustice than committed himself, a man who believed that the soul is worth more than life itself. Now Christians in that will of course hear in this faint, powerful pre echo of a deeper story to come. A man who's condemned unjustly here, chosen truth over survival. So why does this four part journey matter? Well, the arc of it is not meant to be just a biography, it's meant to be a sort of journey across these four episodes, in which we'll meet first Socrates the human, Socrates the teacher, Socrates the philosopher, and Socrates the martyr. It's a journey from those old dusty streets of Athens into, I hope, the depth of the human heart. Not yet the inner self that the Christian world, and particularly the Reformation and the Enlightenment that followed would introduce, but the soul nonetheless. It also prepares the ground for, of course, Plato and Aristotle to follow. But more importantly, it prepares us to ask the questions that Socrates believed mattered most. What does it mean to live the good life? What is virtue? And what is justice? And most importantly, what kind of person am I becoming? So that's today's episode. The beginning of wisdom, the beginning of what is called the classical era of philosophy, and the beginning of a journey into the life of a man who changed the question. So let's begin indeed with that life, that biography of Socrates, the man behind the questions. Before Socrates becomes the man who transforms philosophy, he is simply Socrates of Athens. He's a stonemason son, an ordinary man with rather a round belly, a snub nose, but a piercing mind and the habit of asking questions that made people feel deeply uncomfortable. The sort of questions you don't ask at dinner parties. Now he's not handsome in any way, he's not wealthy, he's not powerful, he's not even said to be particularly tidy, but he is described as unforgettable by everyone who meets him. Socrates is the kind of man you notice even when you wish you hadn't. Now Socrates was born around 470 BC in Athens, the son of Sophronicus, a stonemason, and Phenerite, a midwife. The pairing is almost too perfect. His father shapes stones and his mother helps bring life into the world. Because some would point out, well Socrates indeed spent his life shaping people's thinking and helping people give birth to new ideas. Anyway, he begins life in the working class, not among the aristocrats, not among the sophists, not among the elite in any way. He knows the feel of stone and tools and dust on his hands. He knows the rhythm of good, honest labour, and he knows the humility of an ordinary life. And this matters because Socrates will insist that wisdom is not the privilege of the educated, but the call of every individual human soul. Now Socrates served as a hoplite, a heavily armed infantry soldier who fought, in fact, in three major battles, and by all accounts he was astonishingly brave. Plato tells us that Socrates once saved the life of Alcibades, the golden boy of Athens. In another battle he fought firm while younger and fitter men around him were seen to flee. This is not the image that most people have of Socrates today. They imagine him wandering barefoot, lost in thought, bumping into fruit stalls, but the truth is he was physically tough, mentally disciplined and capable of remarkable courage. He's not a fragile philosopher, he's a man who has seen real life, war, death, fear, and learned to master himself. Socrates becomes famous in Athens, not because he writes books, he never writes a word himself, in fact, but because he is impossible to ignore. He walks barefoot everywhere, he wears the same cloak year round, season round, he eats simply, he drinks moderately, although it is said that when he was young he could outdrink anyone when necessary. He's often seen to be lost in thought, standing still for hours just thinking. He is rumoured once to have stood motionless for an entire day and a night. He also seems strange to some, eccentric, but his personality is magnetic. Young men follow align like he's sort of a philosophical rock star of his day, but older men avoid him like he's a tax inspector. Then there's his marriage. Socrates marries Anthipathy, a woman with a reputation for being sharp tongued and fiery, and ancient writers love to exaggerate this aspect of his life, perhaps unfairly even, but the truth is probably simpler. You see, Socrates was a man who questioned everything, and Anthipathy was a woman who probably did not enjoy being questioned before breakfast. However, many say this marriage actually humanized him, and it reminds us that even the greatest thinkers must navigate the ordinary challenges of domestic life and gives us one of the best ancient antidotes we have as an insight into both these characters and their relationship. It is once said that after scolding Socrates for his constant questioning, Antipate dumped a bucket of water over his head, and Socrates simply calmly replied, After the thunder, the rain must fall. This is the sort of man we're dealing with. Now one of the most intriguing aspects of Socrates' life is his daimonion, a kind of inner prompting or a spiritual warning that the heart receives. He describes it as a sort of inner voice, a sign, a divine nudge, and something that stops him when listened to from doing wrong. However, it says it never tells him what to do, it only tells him what not to do. Now let's be frank, I think that is more, a little more than just superstition here. It's a sort of moral compass he's talking about, a sense of divine restraint. Now in this Christian listeners will hear something familiar, a conscience, a prompt, a whisper of guidance, perhaps a foreshadow of the Holy Spirit. Maybe, who knows? But Socrates believed he is on a divine mission, but not to preach and not to prophesy, but to wake Athens up from the moral aspect of its ignorance, its moral sleep, so to speak. In that he describes himself as a gadfly, that annoying little creature that keeps a horse awake. Athens, he says, is a noble, impressive, but sluggish animal. And he says he is the gadfly sent by the gods to keep Athens alert, questioning, and alive. And because of that, he challenges everyone everywhere he goes politicians, poets, craftsmen, the generals even, and particularly the sophists and anyone else who claims to know what they do not know. He's saying these things not to try and embarrass people, he's saying them because he believes he wants to save their souls. But unlike the sophists, Socrates never charged for his teaching, and that really puts the cat among the pigeons, as they say, where I come from. He believes wisdom is not a commodity that should be sold, that truth is not a product, and that virtue should never be put up for sale. This makes him both admired and makes people suspicious of him. Admired because he's clearly sincere, suspicious because people cannot understand why anyone would devote their life to questioning others without seeking profit. But Socrates is genuinely, I think, not interested in money. He's interested in the soul, his own and that of other people. His is a life of simplicity, but a life that at the same time always combined with moral seriousness. Socrates does indeed live a simple life. No wealth, no luxury, no real ambition really, no desire for political office. He believes that the good life, as he called it, is not found in possessions, power, or even reputation, but in the health of our souls. And this is where, as a Christian reader and a Christian listener, I feel the resonance, the call to simplicity, the priority of the inner life, and the belief that truth can transform, and also the conviction that virtue matters more than success. And that inner voice that speaks to us. Now let's be clear, I'm not saying Socrates is a Christian. Socrates is not a Christian, but he is a man who one of the first to take the soul really seriously, and that makes him a kindred spirit in that respect. So why does his life matter? Well, before we continue and explore his methods, before we unpack the ideas, before we stand with him in the courtroom, we must today the purpose today was to have met Socrates the man. Humble, courageous, eccentric, yes, devoted, morally serious, spiritually sensitive, and relentlessly committed to the truth. He's not a system builder, he's not even a lecturer. He wasn't a writer. His work was really only collected and recorded by others. But he is a presence, a living question mark, walking through the streets of Athens, and now that we've met him, I think we're ready to continue and explore the heart of this guy. The genius of this guy, the Socratic method, what he taught, how he taught, how he questioned, and how he changed lives. And that's what we'll do next time. So that brings us to the end of this first episode, our first step into the world of Socrates, the stonemason who would become a soul mason. I like that. We meet him not as a marble statue or as a philosophical item, but I hope we've met him as a real human being, that barefruit wanderer of Athens, that soldier who stood firm when others fled, and the husband who endured domestic thunderstorms with humor, and the man who said he was guided by this mysterious inner voice. We'll also meet the Gadfly, the knowing man who refused to let his city sleep, and the teacher who charged nothing because he believed wisdom was in fact priceless. Socrates is strange in some ways, certainly to our modern ears, but he is magnetic in the fact that he's humble, courageous, and utterly devoted to the search and care of the soul. He is the man who believed that the greatest danger in life does not lie in poverty or failure or even ridicule, but living without ever examining who you are, being and becoming. So we've met the man, we're ready to meet the method. Because in the next episode, we'll step into the heart of what makes Socrates such a genius. The way he taught, the way he questioned, the way he gently dismantled illusions that people might carry and invited people to seek the truth. If today showed us who Socrates was, our next episode will show us how Socrates worked. So until then, well thanks for listening. That's all I can say. I hope you found it helpful and interesting. I claim to be no philosopher and no expert. I'm just doing this journey and I'm sharing with you what I've learned along the way and what I find as a Christian and a believer as I stumble through this course. And my hope is that the quiet voice of wisdom guides you faithfully. But more faithfully, perhaps, than Socrates thought his Daimonion guided him, because as a believer, as a Christian, I know today that the guide is real and that he's personal, and we call him the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God in Christ. Thanks for being with me today.