A) He felt called to expose the limitations of human
knowledge.
1)It began
with a search to understand the meaning of the
message
of the Delphic oracle - No one is wiser than
Socrates
- which appeared to him to be a riddle whose
answer
the god expected him to find:
"I
sorrowed and I feared; but still it seemed necessary to
hold the
god's business of the highest importance, so I had
to go on trying to find out what the oracle meant."
Apology
2)During
that search he came to understand what he felt God
meant by
the message, acquired a feeling that he was
responsible to God to spread it, and discovered a technique
for doing
so - the infamous Socratic method:
"The
god in fact is wise, and in this oracle he means that
human
wisdom is worth little or nothing, and it appears
that he
does not say this of Socrates, but simply adds my
name to
take me as an example, as if he were to say that
this one
of you human beings is wisest, who like Socrates
knows
that he is in truth worth nothing as regards wisdom.
This is
what I still, even now, go about searching and
investigating in the god's way, if ever I think one of our
people,
or a foreigner, is wise; and whenever I don't find
him so, I
help the god by proving that the man is not wise."
Apology
3)"Why
ever do some people enjoy spending a great deal of
time with
me?....they enjoy hearing men cross-examined who
think
they are wise, and are not....And I maintain that I
have been
commanded by the god to do this, through oracles
and
dreams and in every way in which some divine influence
or other
has ever commanded a man to do anything."
Apology
B) Over time his definition of his task expanded. In addition to exposing what we don't know,
he felt his duty to follow and advocate what he called Philosophy - literally a "love of wisdom."
The desire and search for wisdom and virtue seemed to him to take precedence over all other considerations:
1)"God
posted me, as I thought and believed, with the duty to
be a
philosopher and to test myself and others..."
Apology
2)"If
you were to say to me...'we let you go free, but on
this
condition, that you will no longer spend your time in
this
search or in philosophy'...if you should let me go
free on
these terms which I have mentioned, I should answer
you,
'Many thanks indeed for your kindness, gentlemen, but
I will
obey the god rather than you, and as long as I have
breath in
me and remain able to do it, I will never cease
being a
philosopher..."
Apology
3)"Perhaps someone might say, Can't you go away from us,
Socrates,
and keep silent and lead a quiet life?....If I say
that this
is to disobey the god, and therefor I cannot keep
quiet,
you will not believe me but think that I am a humbug.
If again
I say it is the greatest good for a man every day
to
discuss virtue and the other things about which you hear
me talking and examining myself and
everybody else, and
that life
without enquiry is not worth living for a man,
you will
believe me still less if I say that. And
yet all
this is
true."
Apology
C) As a philosopher, he saw his role as a kind of Nibleyesque gadfly -
reminding his
countrymen that they ought to pursue virtue and the
good of their
souls instead of wealth, power or honor.
1)"I
will never cease being a philosopher, and exhorting you,
and
showing what is in me to any one of you I may meet, by
speaking
to him in my usual way: My excellent
friend, you
are an
Athenian, a citizen of this great city, so famous
for
wisdom and strength, and you take every care to be as
well off
as possible in money, reputation and place - then
are you
not ashamed not to take every care and thought for
understanding, for truth, and for the soul, so that it may
be
perfect?"
Apology
2)"And
if any one of you argues the point and says he does
take
every care[for his soul], I will not at once let him
go and depart myself; but I will question and
cross-examine
and test
him, and if I think he does not possess virtue but
only says
so, I will show that that he sets very little
value on
things most precious, and sets more value on
meaner
things, and I will put him to shame....For this is
what God
commands me, make no mistake, and I think there is
no
greater good for you in the city in any way than my
service
to God."
Apology
3)"All
I do is go about and persuade you, both young and old,
not to
care for your bodies and your monies first, and to
care more
exceedingly for the soul, to make it as good as
possible."
Apology
4)"I
plead for your sakes, that you may not offend about
God's
gift by condemning me. For if you put me
to death,
you will
not easily find such another, really like
something
stuck on the state by the god, though it is
rather
laughable to say so; for the state is like a big
thoroughbred horse, so big that he is a bit slow and heavy,
and wants
a gadfly to wake him up. I think the god
put me
on the
state something like that, to wake you up and
persuade
you and reproach you every one, as I keep settling
on you
everywhere all day long."
Apology
5)"That I am really one given to you by God you can easily
see from
this; for it does not seem human that I have
neglected
all my own interests...while always I was
attending
to your interests, approaching each of you
privately
like a father or an elder brother and
persuading you to care for virtue."
Apology
I envy Socrates' clarity about his earthly mission. He, like the Master was able to say "for this cause I was born and for this purpose came I into the world." I take comfort that both Jesus and Socrates were looking backwards near the very end of their mortality. I hope my own personal knowledge of what I was put upon this earth to accomplish comes clearer by then.
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