Socratobatics: A Balancing Act

Greetings all,

This is more of a free flowing exploration of ideas from my abstract. Spoiler alert. In other news, I am aware that we are reading Aristotle, but I like Plato more. Favouritism is alive and well.

Plato places Socrates in the middle of several contradictions. He is a pauper welcomed by aristocrats, is ugly but loved by youths, and is the wisest man who claims to know nothing. Another tension in which we see him is between silence and company.

Socrates obviously endorses communion and company when philosophizing. Not only does the dialectic nature of Plato's writing intimate this, but Socrates himself is always presented as being among a group when travelling--or at the very least, not far away from one of his interoculars. Philosophy as much as Socrates must then depend on companionship to get by.

Socrates has another side, however. While he is not shown to be alone many times, Socrates does institute a sort of isolation when necessary.The Symposium shows him standing outside the doors of the party in a trance, and when questioned where he is and what he is doing, Socrates' companion mentions that he is prone to such trances.

Another time Socrates separates himself from the conversation is to be found in the Phaedo. Here, Socrates is not free to leave, but does take a long time before replying to Cebes. He seems to be imposing upon himself a level of isolation and reflection.

Why he does this is up for much debate. Perhaps he is merely taking a moment to gather his thoughts; even the quick witted Socrates cannot always have the answers right on hand. Maybe he views philosophy as organic and prioritises that above whatever else he is doing by taking the time to fully explore a thought as it comes to him. Perhaps still, he is talking to his daemon. Socrates could be about to do or say something against the divine will of the gods, and his daemon is reproaching him. Plato may be using this pause as a dramatic devise to either attract the readers attention, or suggest chewing the cud--to borrow from Nietzsche--of a particular idea either preceding or succeeding the action.

Could it be that Socrates is simply balancing contemplation and conversation? If philosophy is to be a way of life in the most holistic way, then it must encompass both the communal and the private. This might be Plato's only way of insinuating that idea in his dialogue format.

All of this an more--or less--I intend to grapple with in my essay.

Socratic Silence

Socrates begins his entrance to the Symposium by not doing exactly that. He actually manages to avoid entering for quite some time. In fact, he managed to avoid entering in its entirety just the day before. I would like to explore why he did so. My reasoning is three fold: Socrates likes the quiet, philosophers at times must separate themselves, and the daimon.

The first reason is seeking silence. As I stated in my (immediately) preceding blog, leisure is important to philosophy. While I have not conducted an exhaustive (or any) search of the corpus of Plato, from the near dozen of dialogues I have read, I cannot recall any of them beginning with someone working (the closest I recall being the Euthyphro and the Apology since court is exhausting enough to be considered work). The ability to philosophize without pressures seems highlighted given the (lack of) evidence (to the contrary). Socrates' standing spell could simply be a way for him to avoid pressures and enjoy his soul. Alternatively, he could be actually exploring an idea as it comes up, rather than putting it off for spare time (which never comes) like all of these millenneals (read: the people with whom I am likewise grouped). Whatever he is doing, it seems to be placing philosophy and the internal pre-eminent over the world and the external.

Second, philosophers sometimes must separate themselves. Philosophy cannot be done in the face of distraction. Socrates entirely avoids the initial party. While exploring why Socrates would do this could be fruitful, I would like to entertain the thought of why Plato would have Socrates do this. Socrates can reasonably be viewed as Plato's personification of philosophy. For Plato to have him avoid the public celebration must mean that philosophy incarnate would do the same. Perhaps this means that philosophy will lead to a state of mind where one is separated from the masses, or that one must view society from outside (though Hegel will have a thing or two to say about that in a couple thousand years) (as a second aside, I don't think Plato means philosophers should only view society as an outsider, but given his penchant for communion with philosophy, I think philosophers must have two minds about themselves). It could mean that philosophy avoids distraction or environments in which philosophy is not practised. Perhaps gluttony is to be avoided. More than likely though, it means philosophers are socially awkward.

I would love to explore the possibility of Socrates spells being guidance from the daimon, but I need to research more of his dialogues with the daimon appearing. I'm also quite sleepy.

Cheers,
Bryant

The Gentle Prick of Irony

"Leisure is the basis of culture," is both often quoted, and the title of a book by Josef Pieper. Beginning a written work with a quote or generalization are taboo. So is referring to a book one has never read. I have just done all three.

I have noticed my blog has been lacking (that dreaded word). I have also noticed how little time I spend eating, sleeping, drinking, and thinking. Perhaps there is some correlation, but alas, I am no doctor, psychologist, or detective to go about drawing conclusions. I digress. It took me a while to notice all of the above, which seemed to drive home the opening quote at a far more substantial level. Not only is leisure the basis of culture, but leisure is the foundation for humanity (another generalization if you are counting).

When I say humanity, I don't mean upright, sparsely haired (perhaps in some more than others) primates. I mean humanity in the distinguishing sense: the humanities if you will (which I assume you will, if you are reading this). Humans did something no other species did. We brought our food to us and made it stay there. That gave us free time to think, kill each other, then think about why we kill each other. For other animal, the ends of that sequence are lopped off like so many heads...of wheat, which is why we are having this (or any) conversation (or soliloquy). 

This free time is why philosophy was an act of the aristocracy with the ancients and why you don't encounter many philosophers in war zones. While I have never been either of those, I like to think I fall somewhere between. I am in a first world country and have only gone to war with my noisy neighbors (If the Persians were as inconsiderate as these guys, Thermopile would have been the end of the war) and the fourth wall. That is probably why I write blogs and not books though. 

At any rate, this was a long introduction to get to a short point. I will be starting a little sub blog about how leisure really is important. Some of the topics I hope to explore are as follows (read: I am writing them here so I remember later):

What does leisure look like? (This seems especially important for those of us who haven't seen it in a while).

Does undergraduate education support the growth of philosophy and culture?

Is being busy easier than having free time?

Do we value leisure?

When asked to think about the most beautiful thing imaginable in class the other day, it took me a while to think of it. I was coming up blank. That's when I realized, maybe I just really love silence. I'm not sure if the silence in my head meant I had the answer all along, or if it had been so long since I hear the sound of silence (copyright Simon and Garfunkel) that I didn't recognize it. The irony struck when we never came back around to me to share. Double that irony in my desire to speak about silence, then raise it a power for my writing about it, and you get the title.

If you made it this far, congratulations. The posts to follow will have more content. 

Cheers,

Bryant

P.S: Garfunkel was suggested in the spellcheck. Someone had some free time.