SOCRATES

Once Socrates was walking along the Athenian market place. On the way, he came across young Xenophon who was a just a few walks ahead of him. He stopped Xenophon with his walking stick and then asked him whether he knew where good vegetables and fish were available. Xenophon showed him the way. Socrates was less than interested at that and then he asked him pointblank whether he could tell him where good men could be found. Xenophon could not help feeling ashamed at his odd query. Then Socrates told him that if he did not know, he should come with him.

That was Socrates. He struggled all through his life to find goodness of human beings. Goodness of human nature was the summum bonum of his life-long quest through thick and thin. And that was the essence of his philosophy which he carried through the last cup of hemlock of his life. He lived for the conquest of his philosophy and he laid down his life for the conquest of his philosophy. His soul-searching odyssey into human life was the epitome of a true philosopher practicing philosophy as a paramount mission of life - he lived larger than a life to pursue the philosophy of goodness.

The abiding truth of human existence is to think, know and exist. This has essentially been the ecology of philosophy through the ages. But before philosophy was reborn as philosophy, philosophy had been the carpetbagger of natural science. It would not be far from the historical truth if it is said that Socrates (470 BC - 399 AD) acted the midwifery to liberate philosophy from the reins of pseudo-science. That was why Cicero said that Socrates "brought down philosophy from the heaven to the earth". That is, he turned the upside down by turning away from the speculative nature of Ionian cosmology to delve deep into the essence of human nature and soul.

But what to think and know to exist? To know whatness and suchness of things - things as they are and should be and that is the 'goodness'. Goodness is the logical extension of truth and it should be practically known and then should be practiced irrespective of any consequence. The consequential affects of truth bear with the morality or virtue of human existence preceding essence. The moral baggage of human life essentially coheres with the knowledge of soul or self-knowledge. The oracular dictum "know thyself" comes very close to saying that a man's conscience is the sense of knowing himself and judging by himself what is good and what is evil and that is why a man should know what is the suchness of good and evil and what should be cherished and what should be disgraces and forsaken.

Even then such a soul of high moral rectitude was discredited, convicted in democratic Athens. He was supposed to corrupt the youth and bring disgrace and ruins to the democratic premises. But is democracy sans 'demos' democracy? Were the Athenian plebeians gracefully offered the political asylum in democracy? Or, was it a sham democracy in militocracy's clothing? Socrates voiced against that shamness. And he roused the intelligent youths by educating them the philosophical truth of bravery and virtue of politics - the real virtuality of politics. However great it seemed to be, it is an open question Athenian democracy was always contended and was never blessed with moral virtue and political ethics. That was why Socrates took the initiative to deal occasional body blows to the politics of Anytus-Meletus.

And again the accusation of corrupting the youth against him does not hold good so far as the philosophical conviction of him carried him a long way to bridge the chasm amongst the various cross-sections of the Athenian people. The unlettered mass of people played decoy ducks at the hands of the powers-that-be. He motivated the band of youth to rise to the occasion so that some kind of goodness prevails in the long run and they tended to pose a sustained threat to the establishment by their continued association with Socrates. And that way they were treated as if they were 'corrupted' by him.

When there was an erosion of moral values in all walks of Athenian society, Socrates felt unnerved to shore up the cardinal virtues of life with a humane dimension philosophical truth failing which the basic premises of democracy collapse into nothingness. He had to cross swords with his detractors by the admonition "know thyself". His heroics made a martyr of himself. But that was just coincidental and in compatible with his philosophical virtuosity. As he knew himself, he never cared to know by himself how far he could achieve and how far he had achieved. The achievement amounted to nothing to himself. Yet the achievement is all there to see and it is the measure of his success as a philosopher to his successors.