The ancient Greeks were obsessed with wealth, physical beauty, and past glories. This affected their thinking and even felt threatened by Socrates way of thinking and solving problems because they felt he undermined their way of life, leaving a trail of uncertainty. His teachings on the other hand emphasized more on the mind, how to solve daily problems, and come to a logical conclusion (Gregg). The ancient Greeks were a bit uncivilized, believing that their actions should follow what the gods wanted instead of following what is right because their fate was not in the hands of the gods, but in their own hands.
Socrates believed that an unexamined life is not worth living and that the desire to be happy was what motivated human beings to make different choices (Gregg).To him virtue was knowledge and it was the most important thing as it would be the leading factor of people making the right practical decisions in their lives. He also believed that philosophy had a higher purpose, and because the people of Ancient Greeks were soo much fixated on wealth and physical appearances, this hindered them from searching for the things that were of absolute value.
Socrates introduced the Socratic Method. This is where he asked questions to his opponents or friends and gave them a chance to answer him, he introduced dialogue which does not seem to have been widely spread in the community (Guthrie, 73-75). Many people were amazed by him challenging the Greek conventional wisdom, this can only mean that many people dared not question their leaders or elders out of fear of judgment and condemnation, so they choose to believe what they were told by those before them. Today, in Greek and beyond, society chooses its own path, each person has a liberal mind and each person knows that they are accountable for all of their action. He taught the people that all virtue is knowledge (Irwin, 14). All those teachings have enlightened people who still believed in the old ways of life, people are not afraid of speaking out when they have to.
As he went about teaching the people of Greek, he in so many ways prepared us for the world we live in. He did not know we would come and yet all the things he taught are what influences soo much of the way we think today. His teachings revolved around living a virtuous life, and our ability to make the place we live in a better one without waiting to gain favor with anyone. All the things we consider important like wealth and beauty are really not as important as we think, you can have wealth, but without knowledge, you can never manage that wealth. Socrates sort of made rules or gave guidelines for those people who would come after him, these guidelines are what shows is the way today, they help us solve our problems, help us understand that problems will always be there, how we solve them is what we should concentrate on.
Works Cited
Terence Irwin. The Development of Ethics, vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2007.
Gregg Timmons. Socrates Biography. The Biography.com. A&E Television Networks 2014: 17 March 2022.
W.K.C Guthrie. The Greek Philosophers. London: Methuen 1950
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