Non-fiction / SOCRATES WAS SAID TO RARELY BATHE

SOCRATES WAS SAID TO  RARELY BATHE

I knew someone that based his final thesis for his Political Science

Master’s degree with the assertion that, “Everything is Everything.” He was

required to prove this thesis statement verbally to the head faculty of the

NYU Political Science department, and they were not impressed. However,

after backing them into a corner every time they disputed his statement,

they passed him. I understand why the professors who have obviously already

come to realize that everything is everything in their studies, did not want

to come to terms with this necessarily suppressed piece of knowledge.
    
It is a scary thought, even scarier as you get older, to think that you

have just been taking guesses at what you should believe, value, and work

towards. There are clear ideas of what is right or wrong, or what feels good

and what is painful, but we really don’t know what to take seriously in

life. After the the most skeptical philosophers get through with convincing

you that you don’t know anything, they suggest you discover your personal

preferences, and do what you want to do, and to also try to not get in the

way of others doing the same.

I have been tempted to have the final paper of every philosophy class

I’ve taken be; “All I know with complete certainty is that I exist, and

persuasion is the most greatest skill one could have.” The former is proved

with the well known quote, “I think therefore I am,” and the latter is the

conclusion I have taken a faith in because, if we don’t know anything for

sure outside of own existence, then there is a way to persuade someone to

believe anything. The less someone thinks they know with complete certainty,

the stronger their persuasive skills can be made to be, as anyone who has

witnessed someone having a schizophrenic episode could understand. My point

is proven in that case with how well a schizophrenic person can convince

themselves to believe what everyone else is sure is not true. Also, it has

been in my experience, that the people that think they know a lot with

complete certainty, are easier to persuade, like my mother who maintains a

constant level of composure by believing the world is how she defines it.

This led to her not being aware of the world being any other way, as well as

me being able to figure out exactly how to persuade her to think that a

seventy-five test grade was actually good considering that the class average

was fifty-five. It allowed for me to get away with staying out all night

because I would say I was at the house of a friend that I went to elementary

school with. She would know the family trusting that they were making sure

we weren’t doing anything wrong, and never bothered to check up to make sure

that we weren’t.

The two claims about my existence, and the power of persuasion would be

brought up in these final papers, but my teachers also wanted me to prove

this claim with the arguments written by the philosophers we studied in the

class. They formulate intricate theories to answer the great questions of

how one should live, ethics, what sorts of things exist and

what are their essential natures, metaphysics, what counts as genuine

knowledge, epistemology, and what are the correct principles of

reasoning,logic. Of course, if you are to take any of their claims, besides

that you exist, as fact, then you are taking on their philosophy with a

faith that it is more accurate than other theories that dispute it with

equally valid arguments. After studying enough philosophy, I have realized

that it would be like taking on a specific religion if I choose to follow

any one philosophy.

It seems silly to choose one, in my opinon, considering the fact that

everyone capable of formulating their own philosophy, since I’ve found that

the points made in these philosophical texts merely are re-worded claims

that resided in my mind even before reading them. The accredited fame of the

philosophers we study comes from the time and effort in providing a argument

of reasoning behind their theories that were written with the most

objectivity one could possess. They were inspired to stop their everyday

circumstantial lives, and tried to figure out issues that affected the

entire human race. We study and acknowledge the fundamental theories as

significant enough to scrutinize seriously, and then inevitably build upon

this foundation that philosophy provides with our personal issues and inner

conflicts. These personal dilemmas become more and more specific, until we

understand that we can’t cure world hunger, that you don’t like your

neighbor for some trivial reason, probably concerning their dog, that

you need to buy new clothes that are in fashion this season, that you hate

your boss and need to buy his family a fruit basket for Christmas, and that

everybody is wasting their lives while standing in the way of you achieving

your dreams. As the inner conflicts build up, it becomes less clear that

everyone is on the same team on the same race, and more clear that its a dog

eat dog world. This is why I’ll look over a philosophy book whenever I catch

myself being overtly judgmental of people.

The fact that philosophy is the only academic subject that necessitates

for you to learn its entire history in order to be an expert in it, is what

charms me the most about it. The history is an intertwined web of

contradicting theories that attempt to answer the biggest questions about

life. Western philosophy dates back to Ancient Greece with Pythagoras,

Thales, Anaximenes, Democritus, Parmnides, Herclitus, and Empedocles. These

philosophers conceived theories concerning metaphyscal issues such as, “All

changes,” and “All is fire.” The Socratic Era stemmed from their teachings,

and it was during this period that philosophy developed a structure within

which theories could be formulated seriously. Also, it was decided during

this time which issues should be addressed in philosophy and how they should

be defined.

The Ancient Greeks were not the only people reflecting on the questions

regarding ones own existence, and the nature of the universe. There is

also Persian, Chinese, Indian, and African Philosophies that have a very

rich history concerning the same fundamental issues that Western philosophy

addresses. The times of rapid growth of schools of thought in

these cultures were usually sparked by social and political influences, when

societies experienced just the right amount of oppression, as well as

freedom of speech. The history of Persian philosophy dates back to their

Ancient Indo-Iranian roots that followed Old Iranian philosophical

traditions and thoughts, greatly influenced by Zarathustra’s teachings.

Indian philosophical and religious thought was influenced by the Hindu,

Buddhist, and Jainism philosophies. The history of the six schools of

astika, or orthadox, Indian philosophy dates back two thousand years, after

the establishment of the Aryan-Vedis culture. African philosophy is hardly

studied academically, but its most well known philosophers were Fulani

Uthman Dan Fodio, founder of the Sokoto Caliphate of Northern Nigeria and

Umar Tall of Senegal.They both were prolific Islamic scholars. China and

East Asia’s modern society is greatly influenced by the teachings of ancient

philosophers like Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Legalism, as well as

Buddhism.  in the same way modern day democracies were influenced by the

Ancient Greeks.

Philosophy provides me with a sense of unity with every human that

lives now, as well as with every human that has lived before me. We all have

our specific personal trials and tribulations that we face every day, and

the fact that everyone’s are so different from each other makes this life a

lonely one. This can make life feel desolate, leading us to feel during hard

times that we have been forsaken by the rest of the human race. However, the

issues, and the great questions raised by the ancient philosopher have

always been important for all humans to contemplate. This gives me the

faith that common goal of humanity is to answer these questions. We never

answer them, but the fact that we are all somehow working towards something

together, something more significant than what drives us to work against

each other, is a very meaningful thought for me when discouraged. It is also

beautiful that the objectivity needed in formulating philosophical theories

demands that everyone be put into consideration before coming to a

conclusion. Perhaps philosophy will someday provide the world with a single

government system that is fair and just for all peoples. For now, it

provides the foundation from which different governments are run, from which

classic pieces of literature derives its themes from, from which psychology

find differences in people’s thought patterns, from which anthropology

decides what should be observed about other cultures, from which justice

systems define laws and punishments, from which science developed the system

of collecting data for the purpose of finding the simplest the laws of how

the driving forces of nature work. I believe it is humans’ purpose to gain

as much data about themselves as an individual in order to figure out the

simplest laws of how the driving forces of human nature wark.

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