Socratic Ideology

Socrates once famously exclaimed that "the unexamined life is not worth living". He said this during his execution trial where he was sentenced to death. He was guilty of "corrupting the youth" and not believing in the Gods that Athens believed in.

He gave his life to stand for what he thought was right. He never once imposed his views on others, and he lived a life of honest pursuit of knowledge. He is arguably the father of philosophy (all philosophers before him are known as the "Pre-Socratics" for a reason), and one of the greatest thinkers to ever live. The Socratic method is used in classrooms around the world, as well as in any logical pursuit of truth. Finally, his Socratic Irony is universally praised.

When I say Socratic Irony, I mainly mean his famous statement "All I know is that I know nothing". A friend of Socrates once went to visit the Delphic Oracle, who told him that Socrates was the wisest man in the world. Socrates did not believe this statement, so he went around trying to find someone smarter than he. What he discovered is that everyone he encountered seemed to either not be as smart, or instead think that they knew everything. Socrates never claimed to know things that he didn't - he was extremely unhindered by his ignorance. He sincerely wanted to understand things around him, and always engaged in dialogues with Athenian citizens about concepts and ideas that he did not know or understand in an attempt to broaden his knowledge. One of his conversations I think is worth considerable thought:

As Socrates walks up the steps of the court house to go to his first (and last) trial, he runs into an old friend named Euthyphro. Euthyphro is suing his father due to a death of one of their slaves. What caused Euthyphro to sue his father is unimportant; the only important thing to know is that his father accidentally killed a slave due to negligence. Euthyphro wants to sue his own father because he knows that his father committed an immoral act. Socrates is confused, and asks how Euthyphro could possibly be SO certain that his father has done wrong. Euthyphro claims to know everything that is pious and everything that is not.

Socrates simply cannot let this opportunity go by him. So he inquires - how does Euthyphro know what is moral (pious) and what is immoral? This is where it gets very interesting. Through a back and forth discussion, Euthyphro (with help from Socrates) comes to the conclusion that what is moral is what all the gods love.

Socrates asks this - "Is an act (x) moral because God loves it, -OR- does God love an act (x) because it is moral?"

Euthyphro claims that an act is moral because God loves it. This is commonly known as Divine Command Theory. These are the problems that arise if you prescribe to such an idea about morality:

First, it means that God's commands are completely arbitrary. For example, child abuse is wrong not because of anything other than God's will. If God's commands are arbitrary, then what is now morally right could have just as easily been morally wrong. Child abuse could be considered morally right in such a world, since the only thing that makes an act moral or immoral is God's say (which is grounded in nothing other than what he/she/it wants).

Second, given this doctrine the "goodness" of God fails to exist. This is because "good" is whatever God wants to be - so really God is not "all good", He just does whatever he wants and that is considered good.

Those two arguments above are reasons to reject divine command theory. The only problem that one might see with believing that an act is moral for certain ungodly reasons, and therefore God likes said act, is because then you have to agree that right and wrong (and morality) function independently of God. (and also the fact that Divine Command Theory is false). Those two problems can be HUGE for a religious person, but for a rational person I don't think it is that hard to accept.

For one thing, if we go back to the child abuse example, I would say that child abuse is wrong because it inflicts unnecessary harm on an innocent child, it leaves long lasting developmental and psychological negative affects on the child, it goes against human nature, and it is base and cruel. These seem to be reasons as to why child abuse would be considered immoral, and therefore also reasons as to why God would not like child abuse.

If, however, Divine Command Theory were right, then none of those would matter. Child abuse would be wrong because God says so.

It seems as though morality now exists independent of any type of God. Sure, what God says is moral and immoral might coincide with human logic of what is moral and immoral, but that does not mean that those acts are moral/immoral BECAUSE God proclaims they are. (I would also contend that these two things really do not coincide - the ban on premarital sex, keeping the sabbath a holy day, not using the Lord's name in vain, only believing in one God, ban on abortion, etc all lack human logic and instead rely solely on the "God says so" Ideology. We are talking about christian moral codes.)

Such an ideology is extremely uncomfortable, and means that we could believe in a moral code that is completely arbitrary and we could believe in the goodness of God when in reality God (according to such a definition or good/bad) just does what He wants.

Instead, morality seems logically and rationally to exist independent of any religious creed. What a great realization?

Prometheus Bound

Prometheus was the Greek who stole fire from Zeus on Mt. Olympus and brought it down to the humans. Zeus punished him by bounding him to a boulder for an eagle to come and peck out his liver every day. Every day his liver would be eaten in immeasurable pain and every night it would grow back again.

This Greek tragedy is very similar to the myth of Sisyphus, which is the story of a king who was condemned to roll a gigantic boulder up a hill, just to have it fall back down right before he gets to the top.

Prometheus' and Sisyphus' lives are filled with eternal tragedy, pain, and suffering. They lived in worlds that were filled with inevitable injury and meaninglessness. They both embody (whether we like it or not) the type of life man has been born into.

We all attempt Sisyphean tasks in a world filled with Promethean suffering. We try to solve problems that never will be solved. We try to satiate desires that will keep coming back. We attempt to live orderly lives while surrounded with chaos. We build sand castles that will wash away with the changing tides. We constantly try to pick up the pieces of a world that will constantly be breaking. We control what we think we can, even though everything is out of our control. We lie to ourselves in order to find solace in an unforgiving, cold world. We are all ants that think our lives are significant, and think that we can change the course of history. The problem is: we can't.

The only significance in our lives is the individual significance that we give it. Society conditions us to follow the rules, to not step out of line, and to live the life that we are expected to. However, it is only when you break the rules, when you step out of line, and when you march to your own beat that you can truly find happiness. Take time to have your Nietzschean breaking down of false Idols. Forget absolutes, forget certainty, don't fall into the lie that heavenly bliss will follow life. Let it all burn. It is only once everything is ash on the ground that you can actually start to build your own world; build the ideal palace of your desires and dreams.

Break the Promethean bound that life has on us, and be a Dionysian drunk. It is only then that you can really dance and sing (as Nietzsche uses for metaphors of true creation and individuality).

It is almost humanly impossible to do such things. As Sartre says, there is No Exit.

Screw the exit. Punch a hole in the wall and walk out on your own.

Nietzschean Afterthought

Nietzsche never ceases to amaze me. I just finished his book "Twilight of the Idols" and can say it has really opened my eyes to a lot of truth. His main ideological assertions seem to be ever present in my life. To be human is simply to struggle. There is no god, no sin, no punishment, no promise of eternal bliss in heaven, there is nothing out there. Science changes, it is merely an illusion. Morality, theology, metaphysics, epistemology, and religion are all constantly changing. Everything then becomes relative. There is no eternal purpose or reality to the world. The only thing that can be held onto as a pseudo-absolute is the idea of the striving individual, the Ubermensch. Most people can never be such an individual, certainly I can not.

We all have a Will to Power, a will to develope our potential as human beings. A will for our capabilities. A will to creativity, freedom, life, to put order to the never ending chaos in our lives.

There are two types of human characteristics which Nietzsche labels Apollo and Dionysus. It is easier to understand why when you learn what they mean. Apollo is the mind. It drive the human to creatively produce, to build, to make. It is a drive to reason, order, and harmony. It is a drive to create culture, ethics, religion, and ultimately create a world with meaning and ORDER. This is a sort of metaphysical solace that produces physics, Olympian gods, Greek tragedy, laws, polity, beauty, universal ethics, light, order, and unity.

The opposite of Apollonian ideas is Dionysus. Dionysus is the body. It is sex, ecstasy, intoxication. It is drunken revelry par excellence. Dionysus breaks down social norms and morality and creates something new and unique, something individual. It is the pleasure principle in utilitarianism, it is pain and suffering, it is nothingness, meaninglessness, nihilism, death, and mortality.

In Freudian psychoanalytical terms, Apollo is the Ego and Dionysus is the Id. They are at a constant battle with each other. Apollo wants to create and instill universal truths, while Dionysus wants to break down those truths, give into bodily desires and accept the world as it is: a world filled with suffering and absolutely nothing universal. Everything is relative and everything is individually decided.

Western culture is always attempting to repress (Freudian) and hide the Dionysian reality. The ego represses the Id. Apollo represses the Dionysian truth. Western culture tries to build absolute truths in terms of religion, morality, politics, science, and culture all in order to repress Dionysian realities. However, it is Dionysus that sparks real creativity, genius, art, and beauty. The Greeks understood this perfectly. They knew that human suffering and pain is the basis for all knowledge and truth. It is at the hear of human life.

Post enlightenment views of religion are that God is dead. There is no meaning in life. We don't have to look outwards to find meaning and divinity and truth. We are now the divine ones. We can create a world for ourselves. We need to find and create meaning and purpose in our lives. We need Dionysus and Apollo together. We need to try and give form and meaning to our lives (Apollo) while simultaneously understanding that life has no meaning, no universals or absolutes, no axiomatic morals. All forms are relative and ever changing. Science, medical cures, physics, history, sociology, religion, morality, are always changing. One hundred years ago everything aforementioned was completely different than it is today. If everything is changing, then how can we claim that there are universal truths? We might view them as universal today, but in fifty years from now we will believe in completely different scientific realities, moral codes, and religious acceptances. The world is no longer flat, we can now send people to the moon, and soon we will be able to do things that we thought were physically impossible.

Life is short, vicious, and brutal. Real knowledge is the Dionysian side of our brains. Breaking down mainstream forms, Idols, decadence. We need to strive to overcome life, the will to power. We are all going to die and live a life filled with pain and suffering. We all need to accept that. It is how we live our lives that define us. It is the fight and the struggle that are both the epitome of human character. What you create means nothing, because everything is ever changing. Creations in your life are simply sand castles. The tides will inevitably change, taking with them your creations and making them nothing. The tides are morality, science, truth. These change, and your castle is gone forever. Embrace and accept suffering in order to transform it. It is inevitable. Amor Fati - We must love fate. Accept whatever life throws at us and struggle through it.

Nietzsche calls for an Ubermensch that strives beyond good and evil to cultivate their own truths and morality. Since everything is relative, one can't fall into a herd mentality of following false Idols and universal ethical codes that do not exist. Humans need to strive for virtue, for the strongest morality - YOUR morality. Christians, Jews, Kantians, everyone who prescribes to structural absolutes are all merely animals following the movements of the herd. If you want to be free, self conscious, and real then you need to be a creator of your own life. You need to recognize the divinity within yourself. You cannot follow, pray, look for meaning in Idols, absolutes, religions, etc. We look for meaning in ourselves. Once God is gone, individuals are free (and more than happy) to create themselves.

Accept the Dionysian truth of the world, and at the same time attempt to take Apollo into your life and struggle to make forms and order in the midst of such chaotic uncertainty. Do not look outside yourself to find answers - recognize your own divinity and come up with the answers on your own. Do not accept universal truths to anything - always question the answers. One cannot live their life by accepting and following a set of moral codes dictated by an organized religion. Then you live a life of decadence and of lies. Instead, cultivate your own sense of morality. Be a creator, do not follow the herd of mediocre souls searching for answers in all the wrong places. Only then can you truly be free. Only then are you real.