Aquila Children's Magazine AQUILA Magazine Best Bits | Page 67

Socrates is one of the most important
philosophers in all of history. But
philosophy wasn’t just born in
Greece. It was born in lots of places
– in Greece, in India, in China.
Amazingly, it was born in all these
places at almost exactly the same
time. It is as if around two-and-a-half
thousand years ago, suddenly people
everywhere were thinking differently
about what it meant to be human,
and were asking new and difficult
questions about life.
Why was
philosophy born
when it was?
Not big and not
clever
Socrates was puzzled. He certainly
didn’t feel very wise. So Socrates
decided to prove the Oracle wrong
by talking to all the wise people in
Athens. Unfortunately, when he
started asking these wise people
difficult questions like ‘What is
goodness?’ the answers he got
disappointed him. He realised that
these so-called wise people were not
so wise after all. In fact, Socrates
eventually came to the conclusion
that he probably was the wisest
person in Athens. Nobody knew
anything much at all. But most
people thought they knew stuff. Only
Socrates knew what he didn’t know.
This made him wiser than all
the others.
A lot of people in Athens found
Socrates quite irritating. They liked
feeling wise, and they certainly didn’t
like feeling stupid. In his willingness
to question authority, Socrates had
made himself unpopular. In the end,
the powerful people in Athens had
had enough. They put Socrates on
trial and sentenced him to death.
Philosophy can be a dangerous
business!
The one in
which
philosophy is
like crisps,
(apparently)
Whatever the reasons for the
birth of philosophy, once human
beings started philosophising,
they just couldn’t stop. Just like
Thales, scientists of today debate
the principles behind the
universe. And although many of
us still disagree about things like
what’s right and wrong,
hopefully two-and-a-half
thousand years of philosophy
have given us better ways of
disagreeing, of debating, of
questioning and of thinking. Do
you think so? Why not write to
us at the usual address and let
us know.
The word ‘philosophy’, or philosophia
in Greek, means ‘the love of wisdom’.
Socrates was crazy about wisdom. He
wanted to be properly wise – wise
XXL. So he decided to find some wise
people to talk to. Because it is hard to
know who is wise and who is not,
Socrates went to consult the Delphic
Oracle. The Oracle was a kind of
one-stop advice shop. There you
could put questions to the god
Apollo. You’d turn up, ask your
question, the priestess would go into
a trance and then she would tell you
what Apollo thought. Socrates paid a
visit and asked the Oracle who was
the wisest person in Athens. The
answer surprised him. ‘There is no
one wiser than Socrates,’ the
Oracle said.
One reason is that around the time of
Thales and Socrates, people were
starting to live in bigger cities. They
were travelling more for trade. They
were rubbing shoulders with
strangers who had very different
ideas and beliefs from their own. This
made them question their own
beliefs, and think differently about
the big questions of life.