Megan Sullivan

Certainly the last decade or so in our lives have been times of great upheaval.

We've dealt with the COVID epidemic.

We now deal with wars around the world.

We've dealt with huge changes in technology, which have upended our ways of life.

And philosophy thrives when things are disrupted.

It is totally not an accident that great figures like Socrates came on the scene in eras of civil war and major disruption.

Because that's when people start to wake up a little bit and realize like, oh my gosh, maybe this is not the good life.

So you have to remember the Athenians were inventing democracy.

I mean, we think democracy is this very old form of government, but the Athenians had really no model for it.

Everything in Athens is decided by public votes among the

Male citizens and debate and discussion are everywhere.

Like if we think we live in a media debate saturated culture, we don't.

We couldn't hold a candle to the ancient Athenians.

So 399 BC, Socrates is on trial in Athens because he's always going around poking at the powerful people at Athens and making them look foolish by asking them,

a bunch of difficult questions and causing them to realize that they don't really understand the things that are coming out of their mouth.

The Athenian government tells Socrates he needs to stop.

In particular, they tell him that he's corrupting the youth of Athens, like he's making the young Athenians not really believe in the system anymore.

Socrates refuses.

Socrates said I care much more about the truth and figuring out the truth about this world than I care about pleasing the powerful people in Athens.

So when Socrates allows the Athenian government to kill him over the questions he's asking, that's the birth of philosophy as we know it.