After studying love, everything else seems
a bit tame by comparison.
Nevertheless, it is
time for us to move on.
Perhaps the short snippet from Shakespeare’s
Othello makes a good
transition point, however.
We are now going to look at the subject of
the intellect, and we can
see that there is a longstanding battle between
the heart and the head.
Iago and Roderigo
personify these two human guides: Iago claims
the intellect—our heads—rule our lives,
but
Roderigo claims the emotions—our hearts—rule
our lives.
While philosophers might argue that
people are both heads and hearts, there is
no escaping the fact that these are often
at war with
each other.
Among the world’s most important philosophers,
Socrates, who lived in the 5 th century
B.C., argues that our heads should rule, yet
he concedes that much in the public realm,
politics
for example, is irrational.
Socrates contends, “[I]f I had engaged in
politics, I should have
perished long ago, and done no good either
to you or to myself” (Plato 25).
In The Apology,
Socrates tries to make a case for the intellectual
life.
He is accused of subversion, of corrupting
the youth.
This is no small matter in the ancient Greek
city-state.
Greek law allowed a person to
make any accusation before the court.
The accused could reply, but the judges, acting
as
representatives of the people, could impose
whatever penalty seemed appropriate, including
the
death penalty.
Socrates makes his case in The Apology.
This is literally his defense.
He claims that he is
nothing like the man his accusers describe.
His accusers are lying.
In fact Socrates facetiously
claims that the falsehoods were so thoroughgoing
that listening to them, “almost made me
forget
who I was” (Plato 2).
Who was Socrates?
A real, historical figure, he was a poor man,
born in
Athens, Greece, who became famous as a teacher
using the peripatetic method.
He walked and
talked, probing his students and other occasional
conversationalists, urging an impromptu
question-and-answer method.
Though Socrates might be described as a war
hero, he had served Athens in several
battles, in the fierce courtroom battle, which
is the subject of The Apology, Socrates lost
and for
punishment was forced to drink hemlock.
Though Socrates’ friends had offered to
rescue him
and sneak him off to die of old age in some
foreign land, Socrates would not have it because
he
believed such a choice belonged to cowards.
As you read, try to answer the following questions.
Why is Socrates thought to be a wise
man?
How does he defend his life as an itinerant
teacher?
Is Socrates right about the need to
make the life of the mind central to our lives?
