Using ancient philosophy to cope with your modern problems
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Do you feel that way? Ideas worth spreading. From TED and NPR, I'm Manoush Zomorodi. Today on the show, what do you and Greek philosophers have in common? And how can ancient ideas help us manage our modern woes?
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.
This is Notre Dame philosophy professor Megan Sullivan.
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.
Okay, so let's go back 2,400 years to the earliest days of democracy. There was chaos, confusion, and some big questions.
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.
Enter Socrates. He's a soldier turned teacher, and he decides that instead of all this debating, young people needed more in-depth conversations. He asked them big questions about what makes a life worth living. What is truth? What is courage? But this push to get these young Athenians to think bigger picture, this did not please the government.
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.
And things don't go well for Socrates because of that. Rather than be cast out, he agrees to be killed. On principle.
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.
Which then brings us to Socrates' top student, who was, of course, Plato.
Plato looks around and thinks, oh my gosh, if a democratic government is willing to put somebody as important as Socrates to death, democracy is broken. Like, democracy is a joke. And we were so confused and screwed up by our upbringing that instead of realizing that this better life was possible, we killed the guy who was sent to set us free. And he thought philosophy is not only going to help you become a better person. But he radically thought that philosophy would help us overthrow terrible forms of government and build a form of government that would set the human race free.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:40
2
What ancient wisdom can guide us through modern challenges?
4:40–9:08
3
How did Socrates influence the concept of the good life?
9:08–18:30
4
What was Plato's vision for a better society?
18:30–26:27
5
How does Aristotle define happiness and flourishing?
26:27–33:02
6
What philosophical questions do students grapple with today?
33:02–50:36