6 Socrates’s most Interesting Ideas are presented for you by Ask Scholars. Read and leave your opinion.
Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher, scholar and teacher. While, he wasn’t from a noble family. Therefore, he received a basic Greek education and worked as a mason for many years before devoting his life to philosophy.
His wisdom consists in knowing that he does not know anything. He said Ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself.
10 Important Life Lessons to Learn Early on in Life
What are the teachings of Socrates?
Socrates was the wisest among all great men of his time and known for his strength of character, good behaviour and ability to exercise patience. Above all, Socrates always emphasized the importance of the mind over the relative un-importance of the human body.
So that, we have mentioned six lessons from Socrates, which never ceases to impress.
Table of Contents
Discuss Ideas
“Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.”
Small minds discuss people
Discussing people here means to talk about a person, typically doing gossip. It means that those who discuss people as an end to itself are shallow. People backstab and criticize each other more often.
Average Minds Discuss Events
Discussing events means talking about the events happening around the world.
This is an improvement because you look beyond people and focus on events.
Just think that discussing events makes us smarter? The simple answer is NO.
Great Minds Discuss Ideas
Discussing ideas means understanding the higher-level messages behind an event, understanding human behaviour, looking beyond what’s given, and finding solutions to help the world.
Readers are Leaders
“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.”
Read what others have written about how to make yourself better. They had to work hard to do it, and if you read what they wrote, you can do it more easily.
Examine Yourself
The unexamined life is not worth living.
Socrates said, You must scrutinize yourself to live a fulfilling life. We all live our lives in a particular way. We start believing that our life is the right way of living.
Your life is worth living as far as you are doing something good for the world and contributing to increasing its happiness.
The Golden Rule
Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others.
This is Golden Rule by Socrates.
This simply means that you treat people the same way that you want them to treat you. You do not do harm to another person since you would not want them to do you harm.
Master Your Appetites and Emotions
The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.
Happiness is a kind of control one has over their surroundings. Since, Happiness doesn’t come from external rewards or accolades. While, It comes from the private, internal success people bestow upon themselves. Likewise, by paring down our needs, we can learn to appreciate simpler pleasures.
Therefore, You need to master your appetites and emotions to such a degree that you can minimize disappointment or distress.
Live with Integrity
Death is preferable to compromising one’s integrity.
Integrity means living life according to your morals and values. Coupled with, a person with integrity behaves ethically and does the right thing, even behind closed doors.
Resentment, anger, betrayal, anxiety, depression, sadness, grief, jealousy, envy, hatred, stagnation, feeling unfulfilled, and living in fear are all feelings you experience when you do not live with integrity. In order to have peace of mind, you must have integrity.
A group of influential citizens sought revenge against Socrates after Athens lost a war. He was considered a societal rebel. After his trial, he was found guilty of corrupting the young minds of Athens and impiety.
Socrates well-wishers arranged an escape for him, but Socrates refused. Because he thought that would nullify his entire teaching and life up to that moment.
Socrates didn’t want to betray his city by escaping like a coward and a hypocrite. He said, “If it were necessary either to do wrong or to suffer it, I’d choose to suffer rather than do it.”
He drank a lethal dose of hemlock, which paralyzed and eventually killed him.
10 Books Everyone Should Read (as well as Students)
6 Socrates’s most Interesting Ideas has been presented for you by Ask Scholars.
Mention your opinion here about Socrates’s Ideas about life.
