Week 1 of Philosophy study - Socrates, Plato and wisdom

In my first week of studying philosophy, I’ve become a little acquainted with Socrates and Plato through my text and excerpts of Plato’s writings from The Apology and The Republic.

I read Plato’s allegory of “The Cave” in which prisoners, chained in a cave from birth, have their heads facing forward and unable to turn to either side, with no knowledge of the outside world. They experience reality in the form of shadows projected on the wall immediately in front of them. Of course this projected reality is something of an illusion. It is only a fragment of the big picture.

In the modest bit of reading that I have done in the past of literature from varying Buddhist traditions, I notice the same description of the world that we commonly experience through our senses being an illusion, and repetition of the idea that we have to go through some type of practice or method to wake up and become “enlightened”.

Socrates considered his societal role to be that of a gadfly, prodding people to break through their conventional modes of thought to get to the truth through his method of questioning, even if it made them extraordinarily uncomfortable. In the Zen Buddhist tradition, the Zen master seems to also take on the gadfly role in driving the student toward awakening through asking him to answer seemingly impossible riddles (Zen Koans). This process of helping the student push past the boundaries of logical thought and knowledge is supposed to help him get closer to the “truth”.

I suppose there are probably multiple roads to awakening to truth, knowing yourself and living the “examined life”. The study of Philosophy seems to be one of them. I think many would also argue that science and the study of the physical world is yet another avenue to getting closer to the truth.

I did some thinking this week about the definition of wisdom. Socrates basically defined himself as someone who was wise enough to know the limits of his knowledge.

This week, partly because of a suggestion in my philosophy textbook, I asked a friend to think of a well known person that he considered to have wisdom. My friend suggested “Warren Buffett, because he’s really rich”. To me, my friend sounded much like those Sophists of Socrates’ time who taught their students that “the only goal in life is to achieve success by whatever means possible”.  I was a little disappointed in the notion that being rich was the most important virtue. Maybe my friend was feeling especially lacking in financial resources that day.

I began to think about whether or not I knew anyone personally who I considered wise. I immediately thought of my grandmother who recently passed away on August 30th. Why do I consider her wise? While not an educated person, she worked hard and made a fulfilling life for herself. She did the best she could with what she had and she maintained a wonderful sense of humor most of the time, even when suffering physically. She was good to everyone she knew and left behind a lot of people whose lives were better for having known her. I think her priorities were in the right place. She would never have called herself wise. I think I like that definition of wisdom.