A stone tablet in the temple of Delphi on Mount Olympus in ancient Greece reads "Know thyself". This phrase is also the philosophy of Socrates throughout his life.
Who is Socrates?He is Plato's teacher, and Plato is Aristotle's teacher, Aristotle is the teacher of Alexander the Great, counting, Socrates is the emperor's ancestor, but today we think of Socrates, not his identity and status, but his wisdom and insight.
He has been knowing himself and the truth all his life. As he said, true wisdom is to be aware of one's own ignorance.
And "know yourself" and "be yourself", these are the words that some people are doing today, but there are still many people who do not really understand, and some people may also wonder: "Do we still need to know ourselves?"How can we not know ourselves?”
In fact, we may not really know ourselves.
Psychologist Carl Jung said: Many times, our behavior is controlled by our consciousness, but many times, we are influenced by our own subconscious. That said, sometimes you may not even know why you would do such a thing, but you just did it.Jung used an iceberg theory to describe people's consciousness and subconscious, the consciousness floating on the surface of the water is only a small part of it, and the subconscious hidden under the water occupies the majority.
Even a lot of times, we do something and we don't know how it will be useful to us, but everyone else is doing it, so we are doing it, and it's actually because we don't know enough about ourselves.
"No one makes mistakes voluntarily", sometimes we make mistakes because of ignorance, so Socrates said: ignorance is sin.
People are the most spiritual existence in the world, we can know ourselves and change ourselves, let ourselves become what we like, when we know ourselves and understand ourselves, we can truly understand life and understand the world.
Socrates said: Only by knowing oneself can we know life. You can control the world before you can control yourself.
Indeed, if we do not have a clear understanding of ourselves, we seem to be in control of many things, but in fact we are only controlled by many things.
Socrates was born in Athens in 469 BC to a stonemason carver and a midwife.
Socrates had a flat nose, fat lips, bulging eyes, and was short and clumsy.
Because he learned carving techniques from his father when he was a child, Socrates grew up to be an ordinary stonemason. But he gradually became familiar with the Homeric Epics and the works of other famous poets, and became a learned man by self-study.
As Socrates grew up, Athens was no longer the Athens it was, the Athenian League was defeated in the Peloponnesian War, and democracy went from its heyday to its decline.
Socrates, who had witnessed the loss of the Athenian city-state's ability to govern and the civic spirit, felt that all this was due to moral decay, and that to change the situation, it was necessary to transform the human soul.
So, in his 30s, Socrates became a social ethics teacher who did not get paid and did not run a school, and he debated with different people on the street every day.
Around the age of 40, he became a well-known figure in Athens, known as the smartest and wisest man in Athens.
It is said that once, a friend of Socrates went to the temple and asked the oracle, who was the wisest person?God said Socrates.But Socrates said, "I only know that I myself am ignorant!"
The more a person knows, the more he knows what he doesn't know, on the contrary, an ignorant person often thinks he knows everything.
In this way, Socrates asked different people questions on the street day by day, and it was in this way that more people understood the truth, knew the truth, made their actions righteous, and made their souls clear!
In the eyes of many people, his behavior is bad, but if you say it is not good, then he will ask you, "What is good?"If you say that he is idle and does not work, then he will ask you: "What is your job?"What knowledge and skills do you have?”Through one question after another, he makes people realize what is the true truth, what is the true justice and goodness.
He gradually realized that people are actually very ignorant, and many people have no answers to many important questions, but they just follow in the footsteps of others, even if they go wrong, they don't know!
Kant said, "The starry sky above your head and the moral law in your heart, the more you think about it, the more profound it becomes", in fact, everyone has wisdom and knowledge hidden in their hearts, but many people do not know how to discover this knowledge and how to understand this wisdom.
So Socrates decided that my mother was a midwife, and I would follow in her footsteps, and that I would be a spiritual midwife, helping others to generate their own thoughts.
This is also his credo in this life: to help others know themselves, to help others find true wisdom.
This process is also about knowing yourself.
Socrates grew in fame and influence. His debates have never stopped, but with the passage of time, they have become wiser.
However, in the eyes of the rulers of the city-state, Socrates' actions were seducing and instigating young people, ungodly and corrupting young people.
In 399 B.C., Socrates, who was constantly discussing philosophy in the streets of Athens, was finally imprisoned on charges of disrespecting the gods and corrupting youth.
That year, he was 70 years old.
The ruler of Athens demanded that he not continue to discuss with others on the street in the future, and that he should keep his mouth shut, so that he could not die, but Socrates refused, and he felt that he was not wrong in what he had done. Since it's right, then it can't be accepted, if he accepts such treatment, it means that his original approach is wrong, and the justice he insists on is to do the "right thing", since he didn't do anything wrong, why change it?
In this way, he remained in prison, and his trial and defense began.
In Athens at that time, it was common for those who were tried to bring their wives and children to the trial and use their tears to win sympathy, but Socrates was unwilling to do so, choosing to defend himself and refusing to read the defense written for him by the most famous orator of the time, Lycias.
But his self-defense is "not defending".
In prison, Socrates spoke of many things, including justice, soul, and freedom, but he did not say a word about defense and accusation.
A friend suggested to him that it was time to think about the defense.
Socrates said, "Don't you think I've been doing this all my life?"
He explained: "I have spent my whole life studying what is just and what is wrong, and I have done nothing else to defend it, and I think this is the best defense.
Speaking of his own death, Socrates said: "So far I do not think that anyone is better or happier than me, I think that those who live well are those who try to study how to live better, and those who are happy are those who realize that they are becoming happier." I think that's what I'm like, when I'm with other people and I'm comparing myself to them, and that's what my friends are like.
If I die unjustly, it is a shame to those who unjustly put me to death, for it is shameful to be unjust, shameful to do unrighteous things, and shameful to be unjustly judged against me.
At the time of the trial of Socrates, the jury consisted of 500 people, and in the first round of voting, those who wished Socrates to die and those who wanted him to live were almost half apart, but seeing this, Socrates was not happy, he was only surprised, he declared himself innocent, but his attitude, in the eyes of the jury, was a provocation.
In the second round of voting, the majority voted for Socrates to die.
On the eve of Socrates' execution, one of his wealthy friends, Crito, advised him to escape from prison to avoid death and offered to help. Socrates refuses to escape from prison and has a profound affair with him.
Socrates' defense is to use his own death as a defense, which is his knowledge of himself and his insistence on truth and justice.
The death of Socrates is the most interesting death in human thought, and the trial of Socrates is the strangest trial in the history of human thought, as if it were not a jury of 500 people trying him, but he is trying 500 ignorant souls.
The instrument of his judgment is truth and justice, wisdom and sobriety.
The Phaedo is written:
When the day of execution came, Socrates' friends and students gathered around him, their faces full of reluctance and sorrow. His wife was sent home.
Socrates' face was ruddy, his expression was calm, and he looked healthy and happy, not at all like a prisoner waiting to die. As always, he chatted with his friends, debated, and spoke to them about the soul and righteousness.
He said: Philosophers will be happy about death, because those who are truly committed to philosophy are actually actively preparing for death. They have been looking forward to death all their lives, and it would be ridiculous for them to feel confused, reluctant or sad when they face the day when they have been waiting for something to come.
Zhou Guoping, a modern scholar, said: Philosophy is to study death.While Socrates was still talking to his friend, the time for the execution was approaching, and the prisoner came in with a cup of poison in his hand. Socrates asked him: What should I do?
Under the guidance of the prison officer, Socrates drank the poison, then stood up and walked, which was conducive to the effect of the medicine, and at the last moment before his death, he said: I still owe Asclebus a chicken, you help me return it to him.
The death of Socrates, for many people in later generations, and for many people who have understood philosophy, cannot get around this period of the past, because Socrates shows us an attitude towards the truth, which is a kind of sober self-control, a kind of unwavering pursuit of the truth, starting from knowing that we are ignorant, and running forward to the distance of the truth.
Socrates also represents an attitude to life, "An uncensored life is not worth living", and he reminds us to live a life that stands up to scrutiny, and his death and defense is the best scrutiny of life.
He also reminds us that wisdom comes from sincere reflection on life. What is sincere introspection is to be honest about one's ignorance, not to explain one's actions without some things that are common to others, and to find true wisdom.
Socrates is an interesting old man who goes around debating with people in the hope of finding someone smarter than himself so that he can learn more from them.
Knowing oneself and living a life of scrutiny is not just a slogan for him, but also a practice.
How do you know yourself?
This may be a question that many people want to know, and it is also the answer we have been looking for, everyone wants to know themselves and be themselves, but many times, they often don't know where to start.
However, in Socrates' view, our knowledge of ourselves is actually hidden in our knowledge of everything, and any kind of understanding contains a belief in our hearts.
When we feel that the act of helping others is good, it is because we have a belief in goodness in our hearts. When I feel that it is moral to respect the old and love the young, and give up our seats to the elderly and children, it is because we have a belief in morality in our hearts.How did these beliefs come about?It is in the process of our growth and learning, constantly accepting, maybe many times, we ourselves do not know why this is so, but we accept, for example, why giving up seats to the elderly and children is moral, civilized and polite, but it is a behavior that many people are practicing.
What is Ethics?Socrates is like that, asking questions again and again, so that people have a clearer understanding of morality, and when a person has a clearer understanding of a certain idea, he will also have a better understanding of himself.
As Buddhism says: Mutual affection is born from the heart. Whatever you have in your heart, you will see and do.
Cultivating one's own heart requires repeated examination and torture, just like Socrates said, wisdom can be born through questions, and when a person asks questions about problems, it is the time to discover wisdom.
When a person asks the ultimate question about the source, he discovers the true truth.
Life is a one-way route that cannot be changed, all from birth to death, the starting point and the end point are the same, but the difference is that how to choose and grasp their own life, some people spend their lives poorly, but also just mediocre and the same, some people step by step, seriously think about the meaning of each step of the moment, so that their life is full and sincere.
As Socrates said: An unexamined life is not worth living. May everyone be able to live a sober and self-contained life, so that every day of life is filled with truth and wisdom.
Our life is not just about dying, it is also about the journey of good.