BACK TO SCHOOL: THE ETERNAL CLASSROOM
/ 08.2023 / BY MELODY SANDERSON
September—a cusp of Autumn whispers echoes of new beginnings, sharpened pencils and untouched notebooks just waiting to be filled with dreams and lessons. As children reconnect with familiar, mentoring faces, we too can make our way back to the grand classroom that is life.
As the poets expressed, learning is a journey, not a destination. If we invoke the wisdom of Socrates, whose legacy teaches us that acknowledging we know nothing is the first step towards wisdom, we embark on an odyssey of the mind, through corridors of perpetual growth. From the unspoken teaching of a fleeting glance to the lessons hidden in nature’s seasonal articulations, everything has something to teach us. A mystical class on the art of being, we too can apply to this cosmic curriculum and make our way back to school.
Born in Athens around 469 BCE, Socrates was a stonemason by trade but a philosopher by calling. Although he never physically carved his ideas into stone, his disciples Plato and Xenophon’s writings offer glimpses into his life and teachings. Wandering the Athenian agora barefoot, Socrates taught us not through answers, but questions. He had the dangerous habit of transforming casual conversations into introspective examinations of life, questioning passerby’s preconceptions and biases up to the point of conflict and reject.
His unique perspectives open a door into a landscape of ideas that can, at their core, be rooted down to the art of questioning. His method, the Socratic method, involved asking a series of questions to help individuals arrive at fundamental truths, eliminating superfluous, shallow mis-knowings. His pursuit was less about acquiring or disseminating knowledge and more instead about cultivating an innate sense of wisdom, independent from external influences.
"To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge". --Socrates
Socrates - Mary Evans prints.
These queries came to an end in 399 BCE after he was found guilty of ‘corrupting the youth’ through his interrogations. Although offered an opportunity to escape from prison—a plot orchestrated by his friends and disciples—he chose to abide by the laws of Athens and accept his fate: the forced consumption of a poison, specifically hemlock. He believed that to flee would contradict his beliefs on the value of law and order, and thus, consumed the poison in a calm, composed manner, surrounded by his friends and followers, granting us a final parting philosophical lesson on the dignity of human life and the importance of principles.
But the legacy he left behind continued to expand beyond his time. He paved the way for many thinkers to follow in his footsteps, philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle who would later on lay the bedrock of Western thought. Fast forward to some centuries later, existential thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus would resurrect Socratic themes by questioning the essence of existence. In different yet overlapping ways, they reignited these inquiries within a 20th-century framework, focusing on themes of freedom, choice, and the human condition. Their work consist of an agglomeration of modern interpretations and variations of Socrates' philosophy, serving as reminders of the value of ancient philosophies and emphasising them as timeless quests that are as applicable today as they were at the time of their conception.
The Death of Socrates, painting by Jacques-Louis David
In the tapestry of human thought, Socrates emerges as an enigmatic yet indispensable figure who weaved skepticism and dialogue into our intellectual cloth. At the heart of his teaching lies the examination of life, the ceaseless questioning of what we know and, as a result, who we are. His method urges us to question our preconceptions and arrogances, and invites us to take a seat in life's eternal classroom. When coming to term with these intellectual shortcomings, we're met with a humble desire to learn, study, and devour life's infinite syllabus with a curious, childlike mindset.