Introduction
The Socratic maxims are both conscientious and conceptual in nature. These dicta were initially analyzed and critically assessed by Aristotle. Presently, these axioms have become an area of interest in the philosophy of education and general philosophy. Indeed, the intellectual and cultural development of the world has been shaped by Socrates’ philosophical ideas. His Socratic Method of questions and answers places Socrates at the plinth of analytical and inventive reasoning. He surmised the conjecture that unstudied life was not worth living. In his philosophical works and the conversations he had with different people, there exist virtues or maxims that Socrates conceived. It is critical to assess Socrates’ philosophical maxims because they were predominantly focused on creating a virtuous society that is guided by wisdom, knowledge, and moral authority.
Discussion of Socratic Maxims
One of the maxims that was conceived by Socrates is the virtue of unity. He asserted that virtues such as bravery, sagacity, holiness, and justice among other virtues are one (Woodruff). More explicatively, some arguments were offered by Socrates to support this case. Going by Socrates’ arguments, an individual cannot think of being sagacious if there is an absence of sobriety. Socrates disproves the likelihood of interaction between wisdom and temperance on the grounds that sobriety and acuity are averse to one another (Ryan). Critically, an individual cannot have wisdom if there is any temperance and one cannot have temperance if there is a lack of real sense because temperance and wisdom are inimical. An additional supposition by Socrates was that things such as beauty, health, and strength are inclined to benefit individuals but can end up hurting them if they do not portray wisdom or knowledge. For any virtue to be advantageous to a person, they must exhibit cognizance because characteristics of the soul are not advantageous or egregious to the spirit. Accordingly, virtues are only important to humans if they are related to percipience and are detrimental if they show idiocy.
Furthermore, Socrates postulated that no individual will ever err knowingly. As theorized by him, no one can make mistakes deliberately (Woodruff). Through this maxim, the concept of intellectualism by the philosopher can easily be deduced. When an individual makes a mistake, this is regarded as an intellectual error. According to Socrates, a person will not do something that is wrong if only the individual knows that it is incorrect to act in that manner (Woodruff). By implication, it is then impossible for someone to commit right and wrong simultaneously. Insistently, Socrates asserts that a person will only make a mistake if that person does not have the knowledge of what is not right. An interesting matter that the philosopher repudiates in his argument in this particular maxim is the frailty of the will. This, nevertheless, seems as if Socrates is rather prevaricating between willingly and knowingly.
As one of his maxims, Socrates also theorized that human beings’ desires and expectations are always conditioned towards obtaining good outcomes. The ultimate expectation of any doer of an action is the derivation of good results from the act itself (Woodruff). Every single one of the bad things tends to be done for the purpose of something else that will be good. For example, a dictator who hangs his or her opponents does so with the intent of achieving good results, even if it means acquiring only peace of mind. The tyrant’s act will, consequently, be focused on getting good results since this is what truly is wanted. An implication that can be obtained from this maxim is that those who desire bad results have no knowledge that they are bad. Otherwise, if those people knew that the actions they were taking would yield negative results, they would not pursue them.
The other truism of Socrates is his belief in suffering injustice rather than committing a felony. Socrates enraged Polus, who is also another Greek philosopher, with this argument. Polus on his part believed that while it was not wrong to commit an injustice, it was shameful. Polus’ contention with Socrates is injustice, which the former regards as the most brutal thing to suffer. Socrates, instead, posits that if an act is disgraceful, it will transcend both affliction and evilness. Socrates argues that one should choose to suffer rather than commit an injustice (Woodruff). Understanding this point requires an understanding of Socrates’ care of the soul. With Socrates’ argument, committing crimes is an evil somebody can do to oneself since such acts corrupt the soul of man (Woodruff). He, therefore, asserts that it is proper to pursue retribution rather than eschewing it. Indeed, this argument depends on the hypothesis that corruption is purged out of the soul by the purification act of punishment.
Another dictum by Socrates is that ruling is or requires expertise. Since ruling requires extensive knowledge, is therefore an art or craft (Ryan). The duty of a leader is not to govern for personal interests but for the purpose of the entire society. Ideally, a ruler should not be led by his intrinsic needs (Ambery). Leadership should be for the benefit of citizens and justice (Ambery). Connected to leadership actions is the virtue of Socrates on eudemonism. The concept points to the feeling of a certain way instead of being in a certain way (Woodruff). It is crucial that an individual creates his happiness and that every human being should pursue happiness as a consideration for his actions. The philosopher contended that a righteous individual who is operating in accordance with wisdom will attain happiness. Clearly, Socrates’ descriptions of the happiest persons are the ones who have no badness in their souls.
Critique
Most of the maxims by Socrates were focused majorly on the responsibility and objective of an individual. From his works, Socrates was concerned with creating a virtuous society. In as much as some of these maxims are agreeable, several of them need critical evaluation. For example, his argument that all virtues are one is reasonable to a great extent. This concept is valid on the grounds that wisdom is the bedrock for everything advantageous (Ryan). For a man to gain benefits, knowledge of positive virtues is important since the qualities of the soul are neither detrimental nor beneficial. This particular dictum by Socrates tries to instill responsibility and foresight.
The maxim about ruling being expertise is agreeable based on the proposition that leaders should endeavor to benefit their subjects rather than pursue personal goals. This precept cultivates desirable qualities of real leadership in all spheres of human life. To a large extent, the notion that human beings seek good always is also agreeable. Human beings seek to obtain good results even if the actions to receive good results are bad. As such, human beings are described as always striving to get good results. In addition, Socrates maintained that it was better to undergo inequities than to commit one. Inarguably, this adage has informed the moral requirement of practicing justice.
As a matter of fact, some of the Socratic maxims are not agreeable. A good example of Socrates’ weak postulations is that human beings make mistakes without knowledge. He argued that the absence of experience makes people make mistakes (Woodruff). In reality, this is not the case as some people deliberately make mistakes with the aim of accruing some benefits in the end. Furthermore, the aphorism of eudemonism can be discredited on the ground that one can be virtuous yet not happy as Socrates suggests or one can be happy without being virtuous. Indeed, happiness cannot be guaranteed by being virtuous despite it being one way to happiness.
Conclusion
In summary, the maxims that are derived from Socratic philosophy are focused on promoting the virtues of wisdom, knowledge, and moral authority. As evidenced in his postulations, Socrates believed in wisdom and knowledge as the cornerstone to acting well. In fact, he attached happiness to virtues such as wisdom and knowledge. His works are therefore important in the discussion of ethics in contemporary society in relationship with a good life. However, these maxims have their weaknesses and the Socratic philosophy cannot be treated as some form of moral authority. Socratic maxims need further interrogation and critical assessment within the purview of other philosophers’ works. Analysis of Socratic theories requires a clear approach that is devoid of bias towards virtues. Indeed happiness can be attributed to virtues but there are some other factors that need not be interlinked with virtuous living.
Works Cited
Ambery, James. “Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.),” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, edited by James Fieser, and Bradley Dowden (2022 Edition). Web.
Ryan, Sharon. “Wisdom“, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Web.
Woodruff, Paul. “Plato’s Shorter Ethical Works“, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Web.