The Heart of Philosophy: Toward a New Consciousness–Ideas that Challenge, Enlighten, and Reshape Our Lives and Our World 0553236369

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THEHEARTOF PHILOSOPHY TOWARD A NEW CONSCIOUSNESSIDEAS THAT CHALLENGE, ENLIGHTEN AND RESHAPE OUR LIVES AND OUR WORLD.

JACOB NEEDLEMAN AUTHOR OF LOST CHRISTIANITY

In Praise of Jacob

"His work

now becomes

a

way

Needleman where those who are

station

seriously exploring the transformation of consciousness will

have

to stop, take thought,

and perhaps replot

their course."

—Theodore Roszak, Los Angeles Times "Clearly and with cogent reasons, Jacob

Needleman

in

The

Heart of Philosophy says what so many have sensed but not found words to express: that at incalculable cost to us all, philosophy has

lost

its

way; but that way can be recovered."

—Huston Smith,

Professor of Philosophy

and Religion, Syracuse University

"He

probes, hp wonders, he pushes, he challenges us, and if the way we live, what we we can hope for, aspire to."

certainly himself, to see

and do,

is

really all

think

—John Loudon, Parabola someone who beautifully fulfills Hilaire Belloc's don or college professor: a scholar for the life of learning, teaching, writing and living is

"Needleman

is

description of a great

whom

a continuous act."

—Kevin

Starr,

San Francisco Examiner

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THE HEART OF PHILOSOPHY

Jacob

Needleman

A BANTAM

NEW AGE BOOK

?M TORONTO

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the

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NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED. THE HEART OF PHILOSOPHY

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Cover artwork by M. C. Escher, Doric Columns; wood engraving in three colours,

August 1945.

COPYRIGHT NOTICES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The copyright

notices are listed below

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an extension of

Grateful acknowledgment

is

made

and on

the next page,

this copyright

which

page

to the following for permission

to

reprint excerpts from previously published material. Basil Blaclcwell Publisher: Extracts from Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein. Reprinted by permission of Basil Blackwell

Publisher. J.

M. Dent

translated by

& Sons,

Ltd.: Excerpts

from

My Confession by Leo Tolstoy, M. Dent & Sons

Leo Wiener. By kind permission of

J.

London. Hafncr Press: Excerpts from Critique of Judgment #23 by Immanucl Kant. Adapted from the translation by ). H. Bernard. Hafner Press, a Division of Macmillan, 1951. Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., and Blond & Briggs, Ltd.: Specified excerpts from pp. 51, 52, 54 in Small Is Beautiful by E. F. Schumacher. Copyright © 1973 by E. F. Schumacher. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Ltd,

Humanities Press, Inc., and Routledgc & Kegan Paul, Ltd.: Excerpts from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Ludwig Wittgenstein. Humanities Press Inc., Atlantic Highlands, N.J. 07716, and Routledgc Kegan

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Paul, Ltd., London. Oxford University Press: Excerpts from The Dialogues of Plato, translated by Benjamin Jowett, 4th ed., 1953. Reprintcdby permission

of Oxford University Press. Penguin Boob, Ltd.: Excerpts from Plato, The Symposium, trans. Walter Hamilton. Penguin Classics, 1951, pp. 100-105, 107, 110-111. Copyright 1951 by Walter Hamilton. Reprinted by permission of Penguin Books, Ltd. Random House, Inc.: An excerpt from the Duino Elegies, from The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell. Copyright 1982 by Stephen Mitchell.

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I

Preface

In

my

experience as a reader and writer of books,

prefaces,

all

forewords, and introductions divide naturally and invariably into

two

One

categories.

kind expresses the author's sense of strength,

hope, and vision; the other more or realization of his limitations.

The

less

honestly manifests the

former, written before

other chapters of the book, are generally lengthy.

book

is

they call to

mind

the story that

minister, a

man

condescended a struggling

man

finished

sermon

brief.

in a small rural

who

and proceeds is

to speak for

In

graciously

church run by

young minister who was an admirer of his. The

by the time he

the

told of a certain Scottish

of great renown and position,

to deliver a

proudly ascends the high,

pulpit

is

all

latter are

and are usually quite

written after the this

The

spiral staircase leading

an hour or more only

up

great

to the

to see that,

finished, half the congregation has walked out

and the other half

is

fast asleep. Crestfallen,

he slowly descends

the long spiral staircase and meekly asks his younger colleague

what he did wrong. The young minister answers him quite simply:

"Had you ascended,

Sir,"

he

says, "in the

way

that

you descended,

then you might have descended in the way that you ascended." Briefly stated, then, the

aim of

that great philosophical ideas

contemporary

this

book

can occupy

men and women.

It is

my

is

to

show the place

in the everyday life of

view that the weakening

of authentic philosophy in our century has resulted in a form of collective

and individual pathology

quences than

is

generally imagined.

that has far deadlier conse-

We live in a time of metaphys-

Preface

x

repression

ical

and

this repression

must be

lifted.

The

various

forms of psychological and sexual repression that modern psychiatry

of the love of meaning, which phrase actually

^definition of philosophy.

meaning,

is

The else

we hope

and our children depends upon

Such

is

shaping our Part

II, I

lives

try to

and what

needed

that

and

I

I,

little

human

book

in

power

in

is

the central,

nature, a fact that has

our culture.

To show

through working with young people

It is

have become convinced of

in this part of the

of

this situation. In

demonstrate that the love of meaning

turn to children.

life

for ourselves

attempt to show

I

so

change

to

been either ignored or misunderstood I

and wish

—why they have

is

the

it.

organic fact about the structure of

this,

for

the argument of this book. In Part

where great ideas come from

is

love of meaning, the search for

the only real, objective force for good in the

modern man. Everything

my

when compared

has successfully fougnt against are as nothing

to the stifling

I

this fact

about

human

nature,

attempt to reproduce the essence of

experiences teaching philosophy to adolescents and their par-

ents. In Part III,

I

try for

nothing

less

than a redefinition of the

history of philosophy in the West, inviting, as

Hume,

Kant, and Wittgenstein,

among

it

were, Descartes,

others, into

our noblest

dreams and deepest yearnings. Needless to say, with aims such as these, only the briefest of prefaces

is

permitted.

Acknowledgments

I

am

deeply grateful to the

Francisco

officers, students,

High

University

School

—

and parents

Dennis Collins, Louis Knight, and Paul Chapman and encouragement of

sensitive support

my

work

Although the students and parents depicted tious,

I

have

tried to portray the essence of

us as faithfully as possible.

I

my own

San

—

for their

at their school.

book are

in this

ficti-

what transpired between

only hope that what they received

from the study of philosophy corresponds to the richness of

at

Headmaster

especially

in

some small measure

experience in knowing and working with

them. I

am

London

also grateful to the for a grant that

Threshold Foundation Bureau of

enabled

me

to undertake the

experiment

of teaching philosophy to high-school students. I

ville

wish to thank

my

colleague and friend, Professor John Glan-

of the San Francisco State University Department of Philos-

ophy, for his meticulous reading of portions of

and

for his wise

and

forthright suggestions.

My

this

Professor Peter Radcliffe for a conversation that helped

my own To

me to think

thoughts about Wittgenstein.

who

Olivia Byrne and Regina Eisenberg,

endlessly assist

my

manuscript

thanks also to

heartfelt

my

in

Marilyn Felber

generously and

ways too numerous

and continuing thanks. And

I

am

to

mention,

also grateful to

who not only typed the manuscript with who also provided an insightful reading

ordinary care, but contents.

work

extra-

of the

Acknowledgments

xii

Finally,

I

wish to express gratitude to and

for

Lippe, for understanding both the book and

my its

editor,

Toinette

author and for

doing her remarkable best to improve the former while preserving the latter.

And, of course,

formed the function of wondrous.

to

literary

Marlene Gabriel, who has agent into something

trans-

warm and

Contents

part

part

part

I:

Preface

IX

Acknowledgments

xi

Philosophy,

Where Are You?

1.

Introduction

2.

Socrates

3.

Pythagoras

II:

Wendy, Sim, and Other Philosophers

4.

Nondepartmental Offering

63

5.

Questions in the Margin

73

6.

A

7.

Parents

ill:

8.

and

Strange

3

the

Myth

of Responsibility

44

Warmth

86 116

Remembering Philosophy Eros and Ego: Toward a Redefinition of the History of Philosophy

9.

Reality:

10.

One

1 1

The

.

19

The Problem and

145 the Question

152

Two Worlds

163

Indestructible Question

192

Self:

Conclusion

223

PARTI Philosophy,

Where Are You?

CHAPTER

1

Introduction

Man

cannot

but a

literal fact that will

without philosophy. This

live

human

yearning in the

ophy and without

heart that

not to

known

else.

And

crushed.

But

man

is

dies as surely as if

of the

this part

When

given wrong names;

a

it

human

he

psyche

is

does break through

though

not cared

it is

it

for;

were it

is

may withdraw altogether, never again happens, man becomes a thing. No matter

eventually, this

book. There

either ignored or treated as

it is

It is

When

to appear.

air.

this

nourished only by real philos-

or honored in our culture.

our awareness,

something

is

nourishment

this

were deprived of food or

not a figure of speech,

is

be demonstrated in

it

what he accomplishes or experiences, no matter what happiness he knows or what service he performs, he has possibility.

The

He

is

fear of this inner death has

world. In quiet

moments, an

inwardly and sees that

all

and psychological

—

fears

begun

the other fears of his are in

—along with —

no way

this fear

known

life.

him

loves of his life

to surface in the

in his ordinary

He

life

related to

—

—

it.

his physical

At the same

a yearning or love

sees that

his family, his work, perhaps not

to heal this

un-

none of the other even

are related to that yearning for something he cannot

he wonders what he can do

modern

individual senses this fear of dying

time, he senses to

in fact lost his real

dead.

his

God

name. And

profound division

in

himself between the wish for being and his psycho-social needs. Neither ordinary religion, nor therapy, nor social action, nor adventure, nor work, nor art can bridge these two fundamental tivations within

him. But no sooner does a

man move

mo-

into the

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

4

of his

activities

himself

What that

than the awareness of

life

within

this division

forgotten.

is

will

him remember? For

help

he remember

it

about himself.

this truth

absolutely essential

is

If

he does not, he

will

He

will

be absorbed by the external forces of nature and

society.

be "lived" by the emotions, opinions, obligations,

prom-

terrors,

programs, and conflicts that comprise the day-to-day

ises,

every

human

He

being.

separate lives within

him and

each other.

related to

He

life

that these disparate lives

need

of

two

will forget that there are actually

to

be

will strive for happiness, creativity, love,

commitment, honor;

service to the higher; for vitality,

for

under-

standing, health, integrity; for safety, exhilaration, passionate in-

volvement state

—but nothing of

be possible for him in the

this will

of metaphysical forgetfulness. As long as he does not

ber the real twofold structure of his being, he and the

him will form themselves into a tissue of illusion. The fu nctio n of phjjosophy in human life remember.

It

And

has no other task.

philosophy which does not serve

around

man

to help

is

anything that

function

this

remem-

life

calls itself

simply not phi-

is

losophy.

But modern

man

has strayed so

far

from philosophy that he no

longer even knows what this sort of remembering

memory memory

is.

We

think of

only as mental recall because the experience of deep has vanished from our

lives.

Therefore,

turn to the dictionary or to

modern psychological

cation about remembering.

It is

right at the outset;

its

meaning

I

not something that can be defined will

emerge

as

we proceed

promise.

There

is

something

else

I

must

state

sort of disclaimer,

even

to anything. Nor,

on the other hand,

as a

ask you not to

texts for clarifi-

is

It is

not cold.

It is

Moreover, the trouble

it

not angry. Yet

I

as a

not an answer

merely the technique of

asking questions and criticizing assumptions. Philosophy clever.

this

here at the outset

warning. Philosophy is it

— —

it is

is

not

disturbing, troubling.

brings will never disappear, will never

Introduction

Why?

have an end.

I

Therefore, over and over again, he

forgets.

—and such reminders

are not always pleasant.

began teaching philosophy some twenty years ago. In those

days even academic colleagues looked at you a

you

told

them your

field.

To

garded as a "metaphysician"

—

rational verification.

To

a particularly dirty

as

queerly

when

word

to

re-

them:

the realm of any sane,

colleagues in the fields of literature or

on the other hand, you were merely you were feared

little

you were generally

scientists,

someone who worried about matters beyond

best

man remember

Because no sooner does a

than he immediately

must be reminded

5

a logic-chopper.

art,

At the very

an insensitive thinking machine that could

confute any point of view, even the most hallowed, just for the sadistic

fun of

it.

As

for

people outside the academic profession,

Anyone

there matters were even worse.

foolish

enough

he was a philosopher invited either outright ridicule or

who would,

ization by a cracker-barrel Aristotle

to

admit

else victim-

free of charge,

present you with an endless string of bloated opinions about every;

'

thing that had appeared in the newspapers, including the Sunday edition

and

all

Or else, you And then there

the supplements, for the past week.

were simply met with uncomprehending

silence.

I

were the occasions when you were mistaken

and found yourself listening

to

Things are

different

now. In

fact,

it is

able to see what the word "philosophy"

walks of

artists

life:

—even

the contrary,

businessmen,

athletes

more

Can you '

else

and

tell it

of which

{he

to

nothing short of remark-

now

scientists,

politicians.

Not

evokes in people from

psychologists, doctors, a trace of ridicule.

often than not the response

gesture that says, in effect:

11

something

complaints, or even to an improvised religious confession.

ical

all

for

someone's marital problems, med-

"Have you found

me?" Here

"it" refers to

may be summed up by

meaning and purpose of

it?

And

Does

a it

On

word or

a

really exist?

any number of

the phrase,

life."

is

no longer

things,

a cliche,

the cracker-barrel Aris-

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

6 totle

has also changed in remarkable ways

on continuously

papers he depends

—

if only

because the news-

report events that

all

by them-

selves raise really penetrating philosophical questions.

Open

today's

newspaper and you

"philosophical."

To

will see:

begin with, there

is

technological innovations transmuting the

conduct latest

their lives

and regard

reality.

Here

developments in computer technology

informed that the computer

Events are becoming

the endless stream of

way human beings a report about the

is

in

which we

"an extension of

is

human

are also intelli-

gence." Here, news about discoveries in genetic research that enable us, and therefore tempt us, to

make

choices that

will

human

beings could never before make: about the sex of our children,

about the creation of new

life

forms, about the very structure of

our bodies. But, in order to make such choices, what

knowledge do we need? for

—about

example, or about the

whole of

real function of the

These are matters

life.

news happens

a

sort

the larger sense of biological

of

life,

human body in the And this sort of

for philosophy.

hundred times over every day throughout our

how and what we eat, drink, and how long and in what state of consciousness we live and die; what we wear; how we occupy our spare time and the time of our children; how we make love; how we work and how we conduct our personal relationships. Absolutely every detail of living is now under the direction of this new society

and throughout our

breathe;

how we

lives:

suffer illness;

talmud of technological change. But where are the philosophical

commentaries

in the

margins of this talmud?

—

that

is

what people

want and need now. Certainly, commentaries abound,

offered by

sociologists, historians, journalists, physicians, psychiatrists;

certainly almost every

what used

to

magazine and newspaper

offers

and

guidance on

be called moral questions. However, none of

this

is

What is reality? What is the purpose of man's life on earth? How ought we to live? What is the difference between good and evil, and why exactly to the point; the point

does

is

philosophy.

The

point

is:

evil exist?

An

Ayatollah Khomeini brings the world toward the brink

Introduction

of war; Pope John Paul

galvanizes millions of Americans;

II

nine hundred followers of Jim Jones

The

7

kill

themselves in Guyana.

sociology and politics of such events are fascinating; the

psychological and economic components are complex and subtle.

But behind exists in

it all is

the question of religion

itself,

everyone, consciously or not: Does

and

God

this

question

What

exist?

is

the difference between true religion and false religion? These are

matters for philosophy. It

is

women;

same

the

in everything: the energy crisis; the status of

the influence of television and media; the creaking finan-

and economic structure of the nations of the world; the pop-

cial

ulation explosion; pollution of the environment; crime; abortion; divorce; drugs. In

every

human

human

and

civilization,

in the individual life of

being, behind every problem to be solved, there

question of philosophy to be asked

—and

is

a

we

not only asked as

usually ask, but to be pondered and lived with as a reminder of

something we have forgotten, something has generally tended to solve

its

essential.

Our

questions.

That

pathology.

Now the pathology is overtaking the genius,

is

culture

problems without experiencing

our genius as a

civilization,

but

it

is

also

its

our

and people

are beginning to sense this everywhere.

A

geophysicist can

us a great deal about the energy re-

tell

sources of the planet, but he can

proper relationship to the earth. i

.

social patterns of crime, but

meaning of crime

We

can hear

A

tell

he can

tell

as a twisted aspect of

much from

us nothing about man's

sociologist

historians

can

tell

us about the

us nothing about the real

man's longing

and see

for

freedom.

vivid pictures created

by novelists dealing with the failures and the mistaken turnings of

human

life.

But who can

tell

us

why

things in general always work

out differently in practice than they do in theory?

But wait, we are moving too that life

deadening process setting out of philosophy.

It is

in

Already one begins to

feel

which inexorably drains the

real

fast.

not so simple to

name

the questions of

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

8

philosophy. These questions, the questions of real philosophy,

have a certain quality we must pay great attention

must As

and care

identify

for.

to, a quality

These questions must touch the

we

heart.

a general rule, the great questions of philosophy are those that

we have

all

but given up hope of ever seeing asked or answered,

questions that

we long

somewhere deep within

to think about,

us, in the child within us,

dream about. These

are questions that

have a certain quality of magic about them. That means they touch something in

something that

us,

at the

is

intimate and impersonal, something that paradoxical words "the

warmth of real

same time

we can

refer to

utterly

by the

objectivity."

Like any trained professor of philosophy,

I

can

reel off a

list

of

the classical and conventional "problems of philosophy": the "mind-

body problem" (how can mind, which body, which entities,

is

such

material?); the

immaterial, act

"goodness" or "mankind," really

as

"problem of free

is

will"; the

upon the

"problem of universal" (do general exist?);

the

"problem of knowing other minds"; the

"problem of the existence of God,"

et cetera, et cetera,

long into

the night. But these are not the questions of philosophy; they are

only the fossilized remains of what were once living and breathing "creatures." Official philosophy, a sort of paleontology of the mind,

out these bones and fragments and reconstructs gigantic

skel-

etons called "philosophical arguments," which are housed in

mu-

lays

seums

called philosophy departments

reconstruction

is

not remembering.

and philosophy

The "problems

serious

human

What phy?

I

is

moved

on, and

still

— something

moving within every

being.

this quality

have seen

it

of magic that

six

is

attached to real philoso-

countless times in the faces of students ventur-

ing into philosophy classes for the

young people

is

But

of philosophy"

are only the tracks left by the questions of philosophy that has long since

texts.

months or a year

first

later,

time. Speak to these

or after they've

left

same

school.

Introduction

9

Almost without exception, they have been "I

bitterly disappointed.

me

had the fantasy," says one, "that philosophy would teach

ultimate wisdom." Another shrugs and says, "I was unrealistic.

My expectations What have

were way out of line.

expectations?

And why

I

and conferences throughout the country?

many

men and women

successful

philosophy in their youth.

some

satisfy

or

who

I

took considerably

Asked to speak about

in

don't

college requirement;

How many times now meet at lectures am astounded by how

"unrealistic"?

heard the same thing from people

I

I

I

our society seriously studied

mean those who took it only to mean those who majored in it

more than

the required

number

change. Suddenly their faces are young, and then,

of courses.

undergo

their studies of philosophy, they

a

sud-

just as

denly, they smile sadly or cynically.

Their numbers are truly astonishing. covered a secret national love it

is

though

as

woman badly.

I've

affair.

Or,

1

though

feel as

if

I

may

put

it

It

is

Here

is

un-

way,

discovered that everyone has slept with the

married and, moreover, that she treated them

I

I've

this

not hard to see that these people are

still

all

rather

carrying a

torch. a businessman, the vice-president of a medical insur-

ance company.

which

I

He

am one

has

come

to a public lecture

of the panelists.

The main

on bio-ethics

in

speaker, a public-

health official, discusses the "right-to-choose" issue, particularly

with respect to cancer treatment, and the other panel afterwards bring up scribes his illness.

members of

of other matters.

A

the

priest de-

work counseling the families of people with terminal

A physician

Laetrile.

all sorts

The

weighs the evidence about the effectiveness of

philosopher (myself) asks about the modern medical

attitude toward illness.

I

question this attitude in the light of Plato's

teaching against the emotions that breed moral weakness by trap-

ping

man

in the

this startling

world of appearances. In the course of explaining

doctrine of Plato,

I

summarize the famous

of the cave," in which Plato likens the

human

"allegory

condition to that of

,

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

lO

prisoners chained in a cave, taking shadows for reality. After the discussion, the insurance executive approaches the platform. His

eyes

upon me and

fall

watch him pausing

I

Will he go to the health

official to discuss

Or

insuring alternative systems of health care? ask

me

something that has nothing

He

or professional concerns?

in front of

at all to

me

Here

is

a

about the

mind

in his

me at a

from

a

is

I

He begins

man

to ask

of

me

concern with new religious movements

level of public

related subjects that

might be good material

some

scientists that the

for

new

verifying the mystical doctrines of the Eastern religions.

In the middle of explaining the

mind,

have

that

dynamic, energetic

dinner party.

feature stories, such as the claim by

physics

moment

chooses, finally,

for thirty years.

newspaper publisher,

forty, seated across

and about other

He

to

his business

and pours out thoughts and questions

been lying half-starved

table.

he choose

will

do with

stands there, torn for a

between two worlds, two aspects of himself. to speak to

our

the cost-effectiveness of

am amazed

to see

how

about selling papers and begins

Hindu doctrine of

the cosmos as

quickly he sets aside

to

all

concern

argue against the mystical meta-

physics of Hinduism. Before long, the whole table of ten people

has sailed into the discussion and china, and silverware

—

I

am

metaphysics. Partway through

narrow

my

eyes,

and imagine

in a foreign language.

toward each other

These

—what

—

to the

I

give

way

to

women,

going on here?

extraordinary animation? Yes, of course, party.

And

an impulse.

that the conversation

attractive

is

tune of clinking

glasses,

moderating a seminar on science and

it

is

I

sit

back,

taking place

vigorous

men

What

causing

is

is

after all a

leaning this

dinner

these people really do like each other and so any pretext

for conversation

But there

is

is

welcome.

more

involved, far more. Mrs. D., seated at the

corner of the table, spends her days in auction houses and working as a volunteer for charitable projects; look at her

wait to put in her thoughts about the nature of the at

my

right, a

well-known attorney specializing

now. She can't self!

Helen

F.

in minority rights

Introduction

about her meal; her eyes are low-

cases, has completely forgotten

brow

ered; her

is

1

knotted; her right

hand

is

clenched into a

fist

at

new thought—-about what? And psychiatrist: He is speaking in eminent our host, an S., Jonathan a voice none of us (and we all know him well) has ever heard. He her

she

lips;

reaching for a

is

stumbles over words; his voice cracks

he apologizes

ingly;

sentences or

is it

tality

—but

for

there

—he

of the soul!

He

is

from

his

knowledge.

And,

my

book on

me

question-

to say, or rather ask,

—about immor-

know

I

first

met her

Christianity.

is

speaking from his

nun who has come to my ago when I was

a Catholic

is

office at the university.

writing

doesn't

compelling because he

here

finally,

looks at

something he wants

is

rather propose, suggest

search, not

—he

broken chains of thought and incomplete

several years

We

had

several long talks about

the traditions of spirituality and mysticism in the contemporary

Church. She has been auditing

me

tells

she

coming

is

my

seminar on Pythagoras. She

to this class because she

is

language for Christianity and she seems to hear

new language

discussions. This

of religion, yet talk.

I

same

I

seeking a in

new

our weekly

not the language

is it? It is

We

touches her in a strangely powerful way.

it

know what

directly;

—what

it

she

do not want

is

reaching

to offend

and

but

for,

am

I

I

can't say

it

really not sure if

for everyone: ThereJ&.SjCuiLe^^

to her it is

the

reli-

gion^spiliething greater than mysticism; more concrete and yet

more unknown. There is an aspect of myself that is anterior to religion, that moves in another direction, that answers to nothing or to no one else but itself. When it is activated, I become quiet; I listen. It is not religious silence; it is not "sweet"; the mind is quiet, but very alive; everything that

but without

fear.

begins in me,

In that

new but

a breathtaking stability.

The

How

process of far this

it

knows

moment some

strangely familiar; I

am

attentive;

I

is

now in question, new movement

entirely I

sense the possibility of

wait.

remembering has begun.

remembering

will

go

it is

impossible to say. But

— PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

12

it

has been initiated through contact with a language that has a

specific

"sound."

have seen

I

nun who come from

this

it

numerous times

even from Buddhism.

religions,

in students like

the religions, even from the Eastern It

true that the language of

is

more scientific and psychological than Western religious language. However in its contemporary form it no longer seems to touch that unknown part of the mind where a man senses both the terror and hope of a universe of law. Buddhism today has Buddhism

somehow even

in

far

is

acquired the general Western patina of acceptability

most "esoteric" forms, such

its

dhism. In any case,

I

have seen pupils

as

Zen

another form of Buddhism respond exactly

language of authentic philosophy.

The

devoted practitioner of religion, be

new

religion

— no one,

his spiritual practice;

I

I

don't care

ophy, he

It is

mind and

—

is

as

to the

conventional religion or a or sophisticated simplistic,

how

ever quite prepared for the shock

to

his

abandon the hin-

"thinking." Yet in front of authentic philosis

actually the

freedom from "thought."

exactly the

same with

scientists

and young people of

Suddenly, they realize that there

which are of an astonishingly

ideas

nun

that not even the

astonished to find that serious thought

is

entific bent.

ideas

is

how intense how naive or

which he has attempted

sitting in

same thing

point

The young Zen Buddhist comes from

of real questioning.

drances of

—

practiced one or

like this

don't care

conventional or unorthodox

morning

it

or Tibetan Bud-

who have

exists a

sci-

world of

different quality

from

the concepts and theories of science, yet which retain the element

They are being asked to use their mind, that mind them through the problems of their scientific investi-

of objectivity. that has led

gations

—

yet

mind. They

it

try

is

not the same mind, not the same part of the

with their scientific, familiar

questions of philosophy, but

it is

not possible.

mind (It is

to

answer the

not possible to

approach the questions of philosophy with the scientific/scholarly

mind

alone: that

stand.)

Some

is

what academic philosophy does not under-

of them attempt to convert the questions to intellec-

Introduction

but

tual problems,

know

I

they find the question in exactly the religions.

The

The

same state

scientist, the

end of the problem

who have come from

situation as those

the

of questioning has brought everyone together.

student of science, comes from his laboratory

abandon the hindrances of subjectivity

to

in order to see the real world. In front of authentic

philosophy, he

him by

that at the other

waits for them. At that point they are

still

where he has attempted and emotion

13

is

astonished to find that the emotion evoked in

great ideas

is

same thing

actually the

as

freedom from

emotion.

.The magic of

human

real

philosophy

act of self-questioning

the magic of the specifically

is

— of being

in front of the question

of oneself. In using the analogy of being in love,

merely

literary.

give the

name

It is

such

love.

it is

"love," except by

interest in ideas

To answer

like love;

way of

I

have not been

can that be?

Why

poetics, to this troubling

as truth, reality, being?

this question,

we may

love as a striving, a seeking for that

than oneself. Such striving psyche. But not only does for

How

lies at

man

is

who

defined

higher and greater

the very core of the

not only

strive,

immersion in absolute being, he

being, understanding of

turn to Plato,

which

is

man

human

a striving

also seeks consciousness of

it.

Plato gave this longing a

name:

eros the y

god of love.

He

allows

the figure of Socrates to give voice to this idea of love; and Socrates, for his part,

calls

upon

his

own

"teacher in the art of love,"

the mysterious Diotima.. Love, she says,

mon) and,

is

a spiritual force (dai-

as such, belongs to the intermediate

heaven and earthy .gods^^wd-naostals. Both universe, in the

in

realm between

man and

microcosm and the macrocosm, there

in the

exists the

world of the Intermediate, transmitting and receiving between els

of being.

It is

lev-

not.simply that Plato sees the universe as "three-

leveled "—earth, heaven,

and the intermediate realm, the realm

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

14

of the daimon, .the link (syndesmos) ically in

—

order to be

It is

.

conduct, rather than simply engage the faculties. Ideas

activities

man's

of his intellectual

cannot guide man's conduct, cannot point toward

meaning, unless they are

which

way myth-

often put this

in order that the idea will guide

felt

way and

the

felt in

manner

in the

in

real feeling operates.

Thus we

man and

see the idea of the threefold nature of

universe diversely expressed throughout earth, heaven,

and

cultures

all

and the intermediate movement

—

the

nations:

the "messengers

of the gods"; the daemons in Western antiquity; the dakinis in

Tibetan Buddhism; the Valkyrie of the Teutons; the angels in

Judaism and Christianity. The threefold nature of the is

to

real

a basic,

fundamental idea that needs mythic expression

be

in order to guide

felt,

at all levels

many

of being

human

—and

levels implies "

life.

This threefold

world

in order

reality exists

many levels. But the idea of many degrees of "heaven-earth-

there are

many

triads,

daemon.

However, the teaching of many

many

levels,

trinities, is

an-

other idea, a separate idea. Ancient philosophy, in the form of

mythic reasoning, took one idea higher-lower-intermediate, in

its

basic

simplicity— that

and simple;

possible to take

thought that

way

one idea

strives

for is

it

it

needs to be absorbed

human mind

the ancient transmissions

at a time.

It

complexity

—

is

that

is

make

it

quite another kind of

complication.

or rather,

the result of a premature and impatient

reaching for completeness.

impatience

Heaven-earth-daemon,

at a time.

a principle;

in the part of the

is,

in this

Complication of ideas

is

begins to lose

When its

real

philosophy

power

in

prey to this

falls

human

life.

Here we are speaking of the one idea of the intermediate force in

man and

the universe, one of

for the higher

whose names

that strives toward the lower from above: tative

is

love, the striving

from beneath. There are other names

Hermes

is

for the love

the represen-

of this kind of love, as was the ancient Egyptian god Thoth,

bringing the teachings of

wisdom

to

man from God.

Eros

itself is

Introduction

1

But the aspect of

a force that operates in both directions.

are considering points upward, ever

upward

in the inner

eros

we

and outer

cosmos.

"What then

is

Love?"

I

asked. "Is he mortal?"

"No." ".

.

.

[He]

neither mortal nor immortal, but in a

is

mean between the two. "What is he, Diotima?" "He is a great spirit (daimon), and

like all spirits

he

is

intermediate between the divine and the mortal."

"And what," I said, "is his power?" "He interprets," she replied, "between gods and men, conveying and taking across to the gods the prayers and sacrifices of

men, and

and the benefits they the

chasm which

universe

is

bound

to

men

return;

the

he

is

commands

of the gods

the mediator

who

spans

divides them,

and therefore by him the

together.

For

.

.

.

God

mingles not with

man; but through Love all the intercourse and converse of gods with men ... is carried on. The wisdom which understands this arts

is

or intermediate

them is Love. "And who,"

"The

To

spiritual; all

other wisdom, such as that of

mean and vulgar. Now these spirits powers are many and diverse, and one of

and handicrafts

I

is

said,

"was his

father,

tale," she said, "will take

tell this

"tale"

is

and who

time

his

mother?"

."* .

.

the principal aim of this book.

The

tale,

the identification and strengthening of the philosophical impulse,

has not yet been told in our present era. it

has not yet been told to me. But

*

Plato,

Symposium 203, The Dialogues of

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953).

how

It is

a tale about myself;

to tell

it

now? What

Plato, 4th ed., trans.

is

Benjamin jowett

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

l6

mythic reasoning

for

How

you and me?

acknowledge the love

to

of wisdom, the need for wisdom, without putting it

for truth?

How

selves

The

Do

tell

them nothing

yet without

heart of philosophy

from a higher

it

in

neon

is

is

by them-

possible for us?

always breaking. Truth, ideas that

pass

level,

me

judgment on

you think you can escape

—and

that?

tale," she said, "will take time; nevertheless

you.

On

when Aphrodite was bom, among them the god Poros

a feast of all the gods,

who

is

came about

manner

.

.

into a heavy sleep;

there was

no

who

on such occasions, the fell

Plenty,

and Poverty considering

down

at his side

he

partly because

that for her

is

And

naturally a lover of the is

herself beautiful,

anything but tender and

as his parentage

place he

first

fair,

and

and conceived Love

he was begotten during her birthday

her follower and attendant.

is

or Plenty,

the feast was

who was

are his fortunes. In the

and he

will

went into the garden of Zeus and

.

and because Aphrodite

also because

is

I

there was

plenty, plotted to have a child by him,

accordingly she lay

beautiful,

Now

the doors to beg.

worse for nectar

[Eros],

When

the son of Metis or Sagacity.

over, Penia or Poverty, as the

come

on you, the

"The

the day

lights

to avoid romanticizing the wish

to face the fact that great ideas are not

enough and

reader.

How

up predigested?

or serving

as the

is

and

feast, is

is,

so also

always poor, and

many imagine him;

rough and squalid, and has no shoes, nor a house

to dwell in;

on the bare

earth exposed he

open heaven,

in the streets,

taking his

and

rest;

Like his father too,

like his

whom

mother he he

always plotting against the enterprising, strong, a

lies

under the

or at the doors of houses, is

always in

distress.

also partly resembles,

fair

and the good; he

is

he

is

bold,

mighty hunter, always weaving some

intrigue or other, keen in the pursuit of resources: a philosopher at

all

wisdom,

fertile in

times, terrible as an en-

Introduction chanter, sorcerer, sophist.

He

is

17

by nature neither mortal

nor immortal, but alive and flourishing

when he same

is

in plenty,

and so he ther,

at

one moment moment in the

at

another

day, and again alive by reason of his father's nature.

But that which

The

and dead

he

is

is

in a

is

always flowing in

mean between

truth of the matter

is

is

god

a philosopher or

is

wise already; nor does any

is

wise seek after wisdom. Neither do the ignorant

seek after wisdom. For herein

he who

ignorance and knowledge.

No

is this:

seeker after wisdom, for he

man who

always flowing out,

is

never in want and never in wealth; and, fur-

is

the evil of ignorance, that

neither good nor wise

with himself; there

no

is

is

when

desire

nevertheless satisfied

there

is

no

feeling of

want."*

We

shall

have

many

reasons to return to Plato and to his

teaching about love and remembering. Before concluding this

opening chapter

let

us find our

way back

to the

world

we

live in,

the twentieth century, the world of advanced technology, nuclear energy, television, computers, the

crisis

pending global war, the world in which that have guided

of ecology, energy, imthe patterns of living

all

mankind over the millennia

are breaking

in the structure of the family, the nature of

down

work and vocation,

the indices of personal identity, social worth and service to others; in the

meaning of wealth and

guities of scientific research

time. This

is

the world

we

—

poverty; in the

compounding ambi-

the world of the present

live in

—the world of

moment

difficulties

in

and

problems, threats of unprecedented destruction, promises of un-

precedented progress. For us, these

comprise the world of appearances.

crises,

problems, and promises

Among

these appearances

we

experience our question, the question of the meaning and purpose of our

lives.

*Symposium 203-204,

trans. Jowett.

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

l8

In the history of philosophy, the idea of the world of appear-

ances refers to something rather different, something quite inter-

but not immediately relevant to the present need.

esting,

world of appearances, traditionally, realities

—

tables, chairs,

other people in

—

all

which we seem at all;

mountains, planets, plants and animals,

to live

and move.

Many

philosophers, ancient

that this world of things

behind these appearances

world, existing in and of

itself,

ultimate reality of things

we

our

The

the world of things, external

that appears to the senses as an entity; the world

and modern, have argued seems

is

and we are wrong

see

is

not what

it

another world, the real

is

to believe in the

and touch during the course of

lives.

The

traditional philosophical puzzle

world are

this

real or illusory.

relevant for us. live in, the

Not

is

whether the things of

But that formulation

things, hut situations

world that faces us and claims to be

and problems of our everyday

life,

is

not directly

comprise .die world we real.

The situations

the crises, the ambiguities

themselves are our "world of appearances."

Behind into

these appearances there lies a real world of self-inquiry

which we need

to penetrate.

difficult of access as the

This

mysterious

real

world

noumenon

is

every bit as

of Kant, or the

remote Platonic Forms. Like these higher worlds,

it

is

closed to

our ordinary mind and senses. This world also demands a different faculty of to

—

knowing

develop in man.

this

power

to ask.

is,

for

it

a

It

lies

power of the mind which Socrates sought will

be our task

in this

book

to clarify

what

not in the ability to know, but in the ability

Behind the problem,

lies

the Question.

CHAPTER 2 Socrates

and the Myth

of Responsibility

Regarded

as

though from outer space or from another dimension

human

of time,

history presents a spectacle of the repeated failure

of great ideas to penetrate the

human

have been introduced into

human

lennia would be impossible.

few

to

seems

become convinced

It is

To

society in

enough

some

that

heart.

the philo-

list all

and psychological

sophical, religious, ethical, political,

two and

to call to

ideas that

a half mil-

mind only

have haunted civilization from the very beginning

to

a

pervasive misunderstanding

—

misunderstanding that has prevented the influence of great ideas

from acting beyond

and the

The main an ries.

a certain point in the lives of the individual

collective.

ideals of the Judeo-Christian tradition, for article of belief for millions

example,

and have been so

But neither Judaism nor Christianity can stand

in relationship

to the terrors of the twentieth century: the atrocities of global

and holocaust struction of

— mass

torture

that j

whole cultures and

began on a world scale

World War

II

nations; the ravaging of massive

:

I

,

East Asia.

The

World War

I

lies,

and bloodshed

and accelerated through

with the Nazi holocaust, the Russian programs of

genocide, the American

i

in

war

and murder, the betrayal and de-

portions of the physical earth; the deceptions,

!

re-

for centu-

bombing and

twentieth century

emerging out of the depths of

is

slaughter of the people of

a record of forces

human

life

and events

that completely baffle

the philosophies of the Western religious tradition.

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

20

That such events should have happened at all is an overwhelming indictment of the philosophies of the Western world, their failure to have an influence on the deepest springs of human But granted that they have happened, there

action.

understanding of their nature by our philosophies.

not even an

is

Our philosophy

simply stands confused in front of them with utterly no relationship to them. If this is it

true of the Judeo-Christian tradition,

we know

true of other teachings that

ancient Greece up to the or later

latest

teachings of

man and

ideas about

all

and

sponsibility.

stupefies

Whether

Freudianism or the

modem

sibility for this

to

account

again the

know

— manifestations

alien to our sense of re-

the tough-minded theories of

rationalist,

form of

crime or outrage that

No human

being can take respon-

manifestation. Eventually a

for this eruption of the

and

or war.

is

sought

unconscious, and once

to form.

Men

imagine they

man; the new philosophy seems

desires, his strengths

crumbles

new philosophy

human

myth of responsibility begins

edifice

out of some

itself

a

embrace the whole nature of man his fears

Marxism or

humanist theories of the eighteenth

alien depth in the

the general structure of

whole

some

unconscious that shocks,

philosophy to the wind.

casts all

is

Sooner

science.

nature founder in front of

century, sooner or later humanity manifests

unknown and

more

the

human

unexpected manifestation of the horrifies,

all

— from the philosophies of

—

his divinity

to

his animality,

and weaknesses. Then again the

in the face of a

Out of the depths of fear,

and

new

tension,

outrage, a

and

new

agitation,

atrocity

man

once

again manifests behavior incommensurate with the prevailing

philosophy. It

is

this fact of

human

life

on

earth,

more than any

single element, that explains the sterility of the

philosophy and necessitates a completely

modern

other

pursuit of

new understanding

philosophical inquiry. Ideas do not raise the level of human

of

life,

not even great ideas, not even the ideas of Christ or Moses or Plato.

They remain and have remained only ideas. do nottiarasfbxm human life. Is this an inevitable law?

Ideas

Is

1

Socrates

mankind

forever

have no

Myth of Responsibility

21

round and round

to turn

on gorgeous whirling

will fashion real

the

doomed

track while, seated

and good

and

same

in the

men

thrones,

of genius

magnificent teachings and philosophies that

transforming power on the actual course of

human

life?

Must philosophy be powerless? This way of putting the issue can be studied and verified by

any individual individual

life

who the

own

simply examines his

same drama

the stage of world history.

My

is

own

In one's

life.

played out that

played out on

is

individual sense of responsibility

does not and cannot reach into the deep unconscious layers of the

human

Every day r in almost every

structure.

manifestations

life,

The

appear, within myself for-j^hkb-t-caq.Jiaye no responsibility.

place from which these manifestations arise has no relationship to

hold in my mind or heart. produce my own atrocities, my own world wars, convulsions, attacks, revolutions. These man-

the ideals

I

I

ifestatipn^ar£-jnyemorions--especially, the negative emotions.

human

Every day nearly every

j

being has evidence that his ideals

and ideas do not reach into the unconscious

parts of oneself. In

I

fact, this is

I

most of us;

The

common

such a it's

irony

experience that

it is

hardly noted by

simply assumed to be quite in the nature of things. is

that,

with evidence staring us in the face every

day that our philosophy does not penetrate into our

:

we continue

to live

for ourselves.

We

to

under the assumption

immersed

live

our children. Our

art

is

based upon

it;

we

own

being,

are responsible

assumption and teach

it

structured around this assumption

our sense of drama and meaning ;

in that

that

is

based upon

it;

our moral axioms are based upon

ou r

it;

religion

our

civil

is

and

criminal law and the whole structure of social and family

life is

based upon

sense

it.

Yet

it is

a completely false assumption.

of responsibility does not reach

down

to the core of

Our

our nature.

Philosophy in the Western world was actually born

in the light

of this perception about the powerlessness of the mind.

It

was

^iate£.viiian4ha*-neither the religion nor the^cience of

his

day

was leading

man

to virtue

—

a term

wbjch had

a specific

meaning

— PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

22

power of mind

associated with the

scious parts of the

aim of human conveys

life for

in relationship to the

uncon-

structure. Virtue, in this sense,

was the

The term

Socrates.

human

being

and relationship between

truth, ideas,

call

no longer

that the only

aim

channel of responsibil-

to create a

is

and the unconscious structures of

what we may

"self-mastery"

—namely,

shade of meaning

this precise

worthy of a ity

human

mind on

human

the one hand,

nature on the other

the emotional, instinctive aspect of the

human

organism. It is

imagine the

difficult to

sort of

have made on those around him.

impact that Socrates must

One becomes

so accustomed to

Socrates and Plato as historical figures that one accepts, without even a ripple of feeling, that

sits

back and

just

one remarkable man

could have had so overwhelming an influence on the course of

human

history throughout the millennia.

know about him. He wandered

Socrates?

Oh,

yes,

I

the streets of Athens questioning,

probing, upsetting people's opinions about themselves and the universe.

Let us

about

try to call forth

this Socrates.

To

some more

nearly authentic feeling

be the most influential mind even in one's

neighborhood or graduating

class

is

not something entirely to be

mind in Western history mean? What kind of a being are we speaking

scorned. But to be the most influential

what could

that

about? us realize that as the center of culture of the ancient

First, let

world, fifth-century Athens contained, in essence, every sort of artistic, intellectual,

own

culture.

We

and pragmatic current

that

we know of in our

have modern science; ancient Greece had the

equivalent in the natural philosophers of the time of our physicists, mathematicians, biologists.

—the equivalent

We

have the

gions of Christianity and Judaism; ancient Greece had as well, its

its

gods,

sacred rituals,

knew about

its

reli-

religions

orientation toward salvation, the other world,

its

religion

its

symbols,

—

quite as

its

spirituality.

much

as

you or

In short, Socrates I

or

anyone

in

our

Socrates

and

the

world knows about religion. rates

the

did not

know about

same depth of

nothing to say if

any,

this,

human

Myth of Responsibility

counts as nothing to say that Soc-

It

Christ and therefore was not exposed to

modern man.

religious truth as

because of the quite obvious

all

It

counts as

fact that very few,

know about

beings today can be said to

every culture in

23

and

times, there exists religion;

Christ. In

us grant

let

that Socrates understood, at the very least, the depths of the reli-

gious impulse.

Science and religion.

Then

now. But

as

of science or religion could suffice.

upon

—

this

one

It

was

—

in

human

religious teacher. Extraordinary! Socrates

Also extraordinary! But what neither of these, nor was

does

relationship to

this

is

Socrates was not a

life.

was not a

the source of his

all

immense

— he was

understandable notion require for

and

who

force;

its

is,

all,

mind

in

almost easily

this

exploration a

above

teacher!

influence?

notion of the responsibility of the

emotion and behavior, why does

incredible stature

scientific thinker.

most extraordinary of

he any other recognizable kind of

What was

he?

fixed

mind, which he

that Socrates considered the single

and only factor of importance

What was And what

one thing he

factor of the powerlessness of the

called the absence of virtue

nothing

to Socrates,

this

man

of such

incomprehensible

by any usual standards of religion and science. Again, the question:

What was

Socrates?

Socrates was neither science nor religion.

any familiar sense of the word. sense of the word.

He

He was

not

questioned, interrogated

assume about him. Yet Socrates and the questioning,

we cannot

is

Nor was he

politics, in

an unknown

factor.

—

art

—

in

any familiar

yes, this

we can

activity of Socrates, his

This unknown

factor, the force

label or explain in terms familiar to us, exerted

and

continues to exert a current of influence throughout the world that has rarely been equaled and perhaps never surpassed in recorded history.

What was

questioning?

Socrates?

If virtue

The

point

is:

What was

the Socratic

was the aim of Socrates, why was

through questioning rather than through the

it

pursued

sort of exposition of

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

24

doctrine, analysis of concepts, synthesis of great ideas, formation

of symbols,

monuments, works of music and

political systems, or

which

great

minds have transmitted

what was Socrates

ask

is

give to the powers of the mind:

tion;

not scientific analysis;

it is

moral reasoning;

mind

is

it

is

unknown under

It is

it is

To man and in

ideas over the centuries?

about the existence in

to ask

ourselves of a faculty of inquiry that

we

legislation of

art,

any of the coundess modes and methods through

the

not spiritual doctrine;

not criticism.

names

not metaphysical specula-

The

result of this

it is

not

power of

not the establishment of a system of ideas, nor the orga-

is

|

nization of a school of thought, nor the founding of a religion or

The

a state.

result

not the portrayal of noumenal

is

realities, basic

atoms of the world, fundamental concepts of God or being.

The

Socratic power

is

and again, behind

to penetrate, again

the world of appearances; the world of emotional appearances as well as the world of perceptual appearances I

like

it

or dislike

the world to

it,

emotions, the world of

my

emotions.

world of appearances means to destroy

my

certainties not only

—

which

I

that

am

the world as

is,

attached in

penetrate beyond the

my

beliefs,

my

—

mind

except a

new

What quality

moment in actual relationship to human nature. Beyond the appearance,

that stands for the

unconscious parts of the Question. real

opinions,

about objects, but about myself.

opens out beyond these appearances? Nothing of

To

philosophy

Socrates, the channel of virtue, the

lies

somehow

my

To

in this special

power of

the lies

power

of

self-interro-

gation.

Socrates

man must we begin

is

unknown. And he

is

great.

These two

aspects of the

be kept in mind and turned over again and again

to feel

what

is

at issue here.

It is

until

not a matter of saying

something new about the history of philosophy, of arguing

that

Socrates has been misunderstood and that the whole enterprise of

philosophy

itself is

not simply, as Whitehead stated, a series

of

footnotes to Plato, but rather a series of misunderstandings of Socrates.

What

is

at issue are the questions

about

life

itself

which

i

and

Socrates

every serious

human

hear the

of great ideas

am

call

being

my own

life

meaninglessness of

God

exists

when

I

which

I

same

time,

I

is

man on

life

in death or

its

— but

end exist;

of

meaning

Or

earth.

of.

What

it is

material change

action,

exists

—

call

my own

itself

it

God

it

my

in

flesh

is

itself

He

I

are speaking

and blood? The Socratic

inter-

issue; the

a material

chemica l process by which the

transformation begins to take place within oneself. This

only this

life.

myself is necessary to pass the

rogation is_jooLjLiJ^^ interrogation

per-

does not change

—transformation— we

what movement

energy of truth into

see the

the higher reality that these words represent

love the greatness of truth; but by

me. And

I

vio-

perpetuation as a

its

does not exist in myself as an effective material force in

may

and

see the chaos

—

carousel of illusions. Ideas haps;

the fact that

At issue

and of the

it

25

also hear a part of myself of

asks. I

usually unaware. At the

lence of

Myth of Responsibility

the

and

fact,

can explain the greatness and mystery of Socrates.

fact,

questioned, but not as

channel within

human

we

question. His questioning created a

nature for the reconciliation of

mind and

body, a channel of virtue or power. Socrates existed, and for us Socrates ity

of mind that defines what

as a

and

it

means

to

is

a

metaphor of an

be human. Socrates

activexists

metaphor of the structure of man, of myself now and here

my

possible development.

surrounded by

scientific

Now

and here,

like Socrates,

am

I

knowledge, by the remnants of great

reli-

gious traditions, the surviving messages of exalted teachings, by

—broken and but beauty and am surrounded by and commandments — some echoing of ancient wisdom,

symbols

disfigured,

power. Like Socrates,

I

still

retaining

moralities

oth-

the greatness

ers

constructed only yesterday in order to

forms of civilization;

my own met

all

others constructed just a

moment ago

or others' comfort or egoistic profit. Like Socrates,

I

for

am

the time by voices claiming this or that opinion to be truth,

voices inside are

still

accommodate some new

my own

and outside myself. These

selves arising to claim they

interlocutors of Socrates

know. And yet

I,

too, live

— PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

26

Athens of the fading

in Athens, that

governed by corrupt

good and

what

is

tions

and

Like Socrates,

true.

artistic novelties

— music,

for.

when

Yet,

return to living,

I

when

am

I

I

me

am

surrounded by inven-

theater in in

which

state of

my

their varied

all

go to

I

mind

and

rest

that

I

long

emotions have not

see that there are higher emotions that appear

plunged in

art or religion or

not the emotions that appear

my

with the people in

changing opinions of

see that

I

crippled by a war,

in

something of the

to experience

been transformed;

I

art,

harmony

forms. Art reflects a vision of

hope and

light,

immersed

spirits,

when

philosophy, but these are

undertake to

I

day to day

live

or with the challenges that

life

life offers

simply for survival, or for the sake of accomplishment, or in

the face of pain, disappointment, disease, death.

No,

like Socrates,

that art, philosophy,

am

I

compelled

and morality

and support

the emotions that really drive

festations

my

and actions of

ways

hate, that

do

manifestations.

I." I

like alien

My

I

The

beings within

me

incomprehensible to myself. Like

totally

could cry out: "The good that I

appear

life,

life.

and that cause the mani-

whole of myself and leading

skin, capturing the

act in

my

me

in myself;

my

these emotions are not the emotions that really drive latter,

emotions

to question the

instill

would do,

that

I

do

be and

to

St.

Paul,

not; that

I

which

responsibility does not penetrate into these

have no

virtue.

these citizens of Athens inside virtue: the relationship

Like Socrates,

me

between

truth,

have ideas

I

—but they do mind, and

not bring

my

flesh

me and

blood. Socrates, real philosophy, begins with the confrontation of this situation in myself

and

in the

religion, science, art, morality

There

is

all

life.

I

am

alone;

these exist outside of myself.

something iujhe mind that is_my own, that cannot be

claimed by religion, science, in the

whole of human

—

mind

that

is free,

art,

or morality.

— but questioning now

the questioner

There

autonomous. But what

is

something

is it? It is

as a force, not as a

concepts; questioning as an act of attention.

Socrates

game

of

and

Socrates

It is

here that

the

we must

Myth

27

recognize the existence also of Plato,

that great pupil of the master.

given us Socrates in the

of Responsibility

Historically,

monumental

series

it

is

Plato

who

logues of Plato. Socrates wrote nothing down; historically,

know of him

is

all

we

from a few extended treatments, chief of which are

the Platonic dialogues, the

of remarks and

has

of dialogues, the dia-

memoirs of Xenophon, plus

comments from contemporaries such

a handful

comic

as the

playwright Aristophanes.

But we are not interested

we

in the historical facts

about Socrates;

are interested in the force of the Socratic consciousness as the

real root

of ourselves. Plato was a pupil

and on

ically certain facts

this

we can

—of

this

we can be

histor-

build our inquiry not into the

of history, but into the facts of self-inquiry.

No

Plato was the pupil of Socrates.

greater,

more all-encom-

passing set of ideas can be found than in the writings of Plato and in the influence of his philosophical system through the Platonic

Academy, which and which gave

persisted for

rise to

greatest intellects of the

two thousand

years,

hundreds of years

Western world organized themselves

even up until the present day.

of the Christian event began to articulate world,

it

was

largely

after his death,

whole systems of thought around which the for

When the force

itself as a religion

of the

through the form and language of Platonic

concepts. Plato plus Christianity equals ninety percent of the world

we know and

We will ings further.

live in.

have ample opportunity

But

for

result of Socrates.

now we must

Plato,

let

to discuss the Platonic teach-

consider Plato principally as a

us say,

is

the greatest speculative

thinker in the history of the Western world. In intellectual depth

he

is

Einstein. In artistic

power he

is

the heir of great tragedians

of ancient Greece and surely showed the sensitivity of a Dante or a Shakespeare

—one has only

and the Cn'ro, dialogues

to

mention the Apology, the Phaedo,

that, taken together, create the

mythic

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

28

Socrates and engender in the reader, twenty-five hundred years

the tears and joy of objective, universal feeling. As a social

later,

thinker he

denced

a great lawgiver

is

and

theorist of social order, as evi-

in his greatest single work, the Republic,

in detail in his all-encompassing last work,

myth and symbol,

and

as articulated

The Laws;

Plato

is

a

whose work the

Tz-

maeus governed Western man's thought about the universe

for

creator of

a cosmologist

And

over two thousand years.

perhaps even above

all this,

he

is

the greatest psychological theorist of Western history, offering a

dynamic of inner

life

against the background of a clear articulation

of the possible development of the is

human

soul.

As an

ethicist,

he

supreme.

Through

mind

other in the

How

Western

call

in every other activity in the

to put

life in

far-reaching tian, Judaic,

greatest

cus

we

and

reality

Western world,

it?

it

also

Plato's

en-

as well as

had

its

significance.

thought encompasses the whole of hu-

the Western world for twenty-five hundred years. So is it

that even the

most profound minds of the Chris-

and Islamic revelations bowed before

scientific

—bowed

minds

— Newton,

Galileo,

Plato;

Kepler,

even the

Coperni-

before Plato; kings, princes, and conquerors

before Plato, whether consciously or not; cians

life

history, influencing every

Middle East where, conjoined with the inspired mentalities

of the Islamic world,

man

about the whole of

Plato, ideas

tered the stream of what

bowed before

Plato. In the

artists,

bowed

builders, musi-

Middle Ages when

Aristotle (a

pupil of Plato) was of such overwhelming influence, representing as

he did the concentrated power of

logic

and empirical honesty,

even then Plato's thought held sway indirectly, bursting forth again with undisputed power at the approach of the Renaissance, which

means the approach of the contemporary

And ideas

is

yet Plato

was the

era.

result of Socrates; the greatest system of

the result of the great master of questioning and

interrogation.

Behind

Plato,

self-

above Plato, stands Socrates. Behind

all-encompassing thought stands the destruction of the tyranny of thought. Behind the successful

mind

stands the self-revelation

Socrates

and

the

of ignorance and emptiness.

mind unknown

the

in

Myth

The

of Responsibility

Socratic questioning

the whole Platonic system,

which the energy of consciousness

seeks to

with the unconscious structures of

tact

29

emotion, and ordinary mental

make

human

concrete search for inner virtue embodied in the

an act of

an act

in

tangible con-

nature

activities. Plato is

is

—

instinct,

the result of the

life

and comport-

ment of Socrates. Let us say that Plato

know of

the greatest speculative thinker that

is

in the history of

our

Yet Socrates

civilization.

we

higher

is

than Plato. Socrates represents a higher level of the mind; not a higher system of concepts, but the activation of a different energy within

human

mony

that not even the greatest systems of ideas can create a

nature.

contact between the

Thought

nature.

is

The

Western world

history of the

mind and

the unconscious parts of

is testi-

human

not virtue; another energy of the mind

is

re-

quired.

There

is

one

special place in the Platonic writings

upon man of

describes the effect

Throughout the dialogues he

tells

where Plato

higher level of mind.

this

us again and again of the dis-

turbing effect that Socrates has upon his hearers. In only one place, however, does Plato vividly portray the transforming

of

this

—

disturbance

power

the upheaval of self-interrogation which brings

the unconscious parts of the psyche into contact with conciousness.

This description of the

effect of self-seeing takes place in the

Symposium, the same dialogue

in

which love

is

portrayed as the

half-god, half-mortal Eros, striving for the eternal possession of

beauty while aware of the lack and ignorance within. This love, this eros y

is

a fee ling

and knowingjn which

joy ..and remorse are

conjoi ned, a kn owl edge of valu e and good whichthe awareness of ojies^owa egoism. aspect^ of love

is

is

conjoined to

EnglisJx.word for this

Symposium we are inmore than the invesSocrates does more than con-

qonscience. Here in the

formed that the Socratic interrogation tigation of ideas

The

and concepts

—

that

fute opinions in the intellectual sense.

is

far

We are made to realize that

/

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

30

Socrates awakens something in

man,

can bridge the separate parts of

human

which alone

a sort of fire,

nature and create moral

power. occurs at the end of the Symposium with the raucous en-

It

trance of the figure of Alcibiades. But before describing this re-

markable passage,

us pause to view again this whole question

let

of responsibility or virtue

—

need

to

be sure

that end,

that has

will

it

human

nature.

We

we understand what we are speaking about. To be helpful to call to mind some of the language

been used over the centuries

tween the parts of has

between

responsibility as a relationship

consciousness and the unconscious parts of

human

to refer to this contact be-

nature, and to see

how

language

this

become drained of force and meaning. The mastery of

through the ages

desire

when

is

one of the phrases

virtue

is

at issue.

need of retranslation and restatement, persuaded people that

(1)

the

all

that has

echoed

a phrase badly in

It is

more

the strongest desires in

since Freud

man

cannot be

seen; (2) since they cannot be seen they cannot be mastered; (3)

even

do

if

they could be seen and mastered,

so, since

it

would be

a mistake to

mastery of desire results in a general pathology due to

suppressed energies that must inevitably manifest themselves in

some form

or other.

The Freudian earthquake completely

destroyed the traditional

concepts of reason and desire that had guided the moral

man

Western

life

Freudianism destroyed these concepts only because they had

whole notion of

before Freud the

a ruling principle within the

mind had been

to a caricature of the ancient

meaning. Freud saw that

instead of reason actually ruling the passions, in the

mind was only

on the mechanical good and

evil, a

al-

Long

ready been rebuilt on shaky foundations.

reduced

of

since the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. But

self-deception

and

what was happening

internal

compulsion based

internalization of surrounding opinions about

process which he

lumped under the term "super-

ego." Virtue, Freud taught, simply does not

exist.

Socrates

and

the

Myth

of Responsibility

31

Modern people were at first unwilling to accept this concept, won over to it because in so explaining the internal

but were

workings of the mind, Freud was bringing the study of

harmony with

man

into

the scientific view of nature. Just as scientism has

removed value from the outer world of nature, the organ of valuation from the inner world of

so

Freud removed

man.

But Freud's theory of the superego, although acting

like

an

earthquake, was in fact only the next logical step in the corruption

of the whole distinction between reason and desire that had taken place in the centuries preceding him.

The

ancient, inner teaching

about the mastery of desire had nothing to do with the destruction or suppression of biological and social impulses in

meaning was understood

itsjjegative

man. Desire

in

as the absorption of the finer

energies of consciousness by the biological and social impulses.

Desire was not understood as those impulses or emotions themselves.

This process of absorption took place passively, uncon-

and

sciously,

led to the formation of a false sense of oneself (ego-

ism) and to manifestations, behavior, and further impulses (adding

up

an

to

immoral

illusory sense of "will") that are universally recognized as

—

that

is,

injurious to others and destructive of the

munal fabric. Long before Freud, the ingly enjoined

man

religious moralists of the

West

to battle against the results of this

com-

increas-

unconscious

absorption of psychic energy, rather than against the cause of the

emotions

—

the process of absorption

be done about these press

them

itself.

Generally, nothing can

the egoistic emotions, except 'to sup-

results,

or to substitute other egoistic emotions for them.

followers of Freud

seem not

to

The

have understood the internal dy-

namics of the formation of these emotions and,

in this, they per-

petuated centuries of distorted psychology that had proceeded under the designation of the term "Christianity." In

sum, what are conventionally recognized

emotions, or the passions subtle

in

and fundamental that

man

as the desires, the

are the effect of something

more

takes place in the psyche prior to their

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

32

formation. This subtle and fundamental process by which the finer energies of the real

mind

are degraded into the egoistic emotions

unconscious enemy of man, and

it is

this

the

is

unconscious process

that the ancient inner teachings designated by the

word

desire.

Not

seeing or knowing about this process, Freudianism merely pro-

mulgated an ingenious theory about the formation of emotions based on the hypotheses of Darwinian biology.

To make

modern psychology was as incabecome of leading man to a liberating

a long story short,

pable as "Christianity" had

confrontation with desire or the process of the formation of egoistic

emotions. This liberating, transformative confrontation

may be

designated by the word conscience, though the meaning of that term, too,

may need

to

manifestations of our nature, what

is

no confrontation between the

contact,

When

be rediscovered.

sense of the responsibility does not reach

down

meant

it is

said that the

to the

unconscious

is

that there

attention of the

is

no

mind and

the process of desire. In order for this confrontation to occur

conscience

may be

special sort of inner struggle. This struggle

and exemplifies; spection;

it is

this struggle

not insight;

self-manipulation;

it is

rates

is

in order that

is

it is

is

man

a

what Socrates taught

self-interrogation.

It is

not intro-

not emotional realization;

it is

not

not the formation of theories about oneself;

not self-moralizing;

it is

and hence

activated, there needs to take place in

it is

not religious resolve. Similarly, Soc-

not science, not psychology (in our sense), not natural

science, not

art,

not religion, not political action. Socrates

visible to all these enterprises

— incomprehensible,

even frightening to them. Self-interrogation ordinary thinking, feeling, and "willing." frightening to these

more

is

is

in-

and perhaps

likewise invisible to

And

conscience can be

familiar aspects of our self as

is

no other

force within us.

Alcibiades, then. In Plato's

been given

in praise of love,

of love which

we have

Symposium

a series of speeches has

ending with Socrates' characterization

already cited

—

love as the intermediate

and

Socrates force in

man moving

the

Myth of Responsibility

between

being in the universe and

levels of

and beauty,

in oneself. Eros, the love of truth

33

half-god and half-

is

mortal, in contact with both evil and the good at the

And

the

aim of

this striving, called eros,

is

to

same time.

merge with

beauty and goodness themselves, in order to conceive and

itself,

wisdom

give birth to virtue and

Historically, Alcibiades

He

enian aristocracy.

in the soul. Enter Alcibiades.

was a

rising

pictured as a

is

member

of the old Ath-

young man of exceptional

good looks, intelligence, licentiousness, and ambition. Plato has

him

noisily entering the

of friends.

He

and proceeds

ions,

Symposium

at the

staggers in, supported

head of a drunken band

on the arms of

to deliver a speech not

about love

compan-

his

but

as such,

about Socrates. Socrates, he says,

offspring of Pan,

is

Silenus was prince of the satyrs,

and the constant companion of Dionysos. He

was generally depicted

as a bald, dissolute old

and with the hooves and horns of the

nose,

human

who

seduce

ing.

But Silenus 2 ugly

as

of Silenus that are sold

like the statuettes

The god

in the marketplace.

with a flattened

class oisilenoi or satyrs

beings through the beauty of their flute-playas

he was on the outside, was also regarded

an inspired prophet and the

refers,

man

statues of

him,

to

which Alcibiades

were hollow inside and contained miniature figures of the

other gods. Alcibiades also compares Socrates to Marsyas, another

notorious satyr,

who

boldly challenged Apollo himself at playing

the pipes:

You

can't

deny

yourself, Socrates, that

you have

a strik-

ing physical likeness to both of these, and you shall hear in a

moment how you

resemble them in other respects.

But you don't play the

flute,

performance you give

needed an instrument

far

will say.

.

.

.

No, indeed; the

more remarkable. Marsyas charm men by the power

in order tc

which proceeded out of exercised by those

is

you

his

mouth,

who perform

a

power which

his melodies.

.

.

.

1

reality \

is still

But you,

J

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

34

Socrates, are so far superior to Marsyas that you produce

by mere words without any instrument. At

the

same

effect

any

rate,

whereas we most of us pay

no attention

or

little

to

the words of any other speaker, however accomplished, a

speech by you or even a very indifferent report of what you

have said I

us to the depths and casts a spell over us.

stirs

myself, gentlemen, were

absolutely drunk,

would have

Whenever

present time. faster

than

down my ..have the

if

were

I

and

face,

I

stated

on oath the

which

effect

speakers;

which

I^Hstejn^Jo^jiium^-iieait beats

and

tears

I

run

this

kind ever used

listened to Pericles

and other good

my

recognized that they spoke well, but

I

.

observe thaj numbers of other people

me when

to

effect

.

me

persists to the

in a religious frenzy,

same experience. Nothing of

happen

.

not that you would think

words have had on me, an

his

to

it

soul

was not thrown into confusion and dismay by the thought that

my

tion to

life

was no better than

which

Marsyas, with the result that living in

Socrates. if

to

my

present

And even

were prepared

I

a slave's.

That

the condi-

is

have often been reduced by our modern

I

at this

seems impossible

it

You

state.

to

go on

can't say that this isn't true,

moment,

to give ear to

I

know

him,

I

quite well that,

should not be able

hold out, but the same thing would happen again.

me to

He

am still a mass of imperfections and yet persistently neglect my own true interests by engaging in public life. So against my real inclination stop up my ears and take refuge in flight, as Odysseus did from the compels

realize that

I

I

Sirens; otherwise

old

man. He

is

I

should

rience a sensation of a sensation of

which

here beside

I

him

till

I

of myself.

that there

no arguing

The

was an I

expe-

might be thought incapable,

shame; he, and he alone,

me ashamed is

sit

the only^person in whose presence

reason

is

positively

that

I

am

makes

conscious

against the conclusions that

should do as he bids, and yet

that,

whenever

I

one

am away

Socrates

from him, behave

I

and

succumb

I

of Responsibility

35

So

to the temptations of popularity.

runaway

like a

Myth

the

and take

slave

to

my

and

heels,

when I see him the conclusions which he has forced upon me make me ashamed. Many a time I should be glad for him to vanish from the face of the earth, but I know that, if

that

relief.

were

The impact sort

my

happen,

to

In fact,

I

sorrow would

simply do not

of Socrates

to

is

outweigh

far

my

know what to do about him. * produce upon

man

a

a specific

of suffering that involves seeing oneself against a very high

criterion of

what man should

be.

But

this seeing of oneself

a moralistic effort to persuade oneself to trary, its effect

is

which

suffering that results

not

is

the con-

The impact

objective self-interrogation,

of

the

is

from the repeated and prolonged confronta-

what one

tion in oneself betwejen

man

is

On

better.

to kindle eros> a longing for being.

Socratic interrogation,

Until a

do

passes through this

is

meant

to

bejind what one

fire all his efforts at

is.

virtue will

fail.

The

perception of what

I

ought

charged with emotional tension pathological

phenomenon

term "superego." That

it

to

be

is

more than

— which more

a thought

or less defines the

of guilt that Freud summarized by the far

is

more than

this

is

emphasized

in

the remainder of Alcibiades' speech. "This," Alcibiades continues, "is

me

the effect which the 'piping' of this satyr has had on

many

other people. But listen and you shall hear

respects too

he resembles the creatures

and how marvelous

is

mosexuality

meaning,

*Plato,

among

which

I

and

in other

compared him,

the power which he possesses."

Alcibiades proceeds to Socrates, amorously.

to

how

It

tell

of

how he once

tried to

seduce

should be noted that the existence of ho-

the upper classes in Athens generally has a

in Plato, that

Symposium 215-216,

is

unrelated to the issue as

trans.

Penguin Classics, 1951), pp. 100-102.

it

has taken

Walter Hamilton (Harmondsworth, Middlesex:

\

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

36

form in the contemporary scene. In the Platonic dialogues, the question of love between

men

serves as a

means

for distinguishing

the two kinds of friendship of which

human

The one

assistance in-ihe search for

kind of friendship

truth; the other kind

is

mutual

is

beings are capable.

the mutual support of humanjveaknesses:

"the friendship of men and the,friendship of pigs."* As Plato writes

about

it,

love between

men

is

that impulse in

human

which can be higher (nobler) than normal sexual tionship in which the or

common aim

is

the

relationships

love, that rela-

movement toward

which can be lower than normal sexual

which

love, in

being;

individ-

uals strengthen each other's faults, such as vanity, self-pity, fear,

and

laziness.

To

continue, then, with the speech of Alcibiades and the

portrayal of how Socrates ignites the fire of conscience, the confrontation of the

The

two natures of man, in those who come near him:

Socrates

whom

love with good-looking society

and

in ecstasy

you see has

tendency to

a

young men, and

is

fall

in

always in their

about them. Besides, he

is,

to all

appearances, universally ignorant and knows nothing. But this

is

exactly the point in

which he resembles Silenus; he

wears these characteristics superficially, ure, but

like the

once you see beneath the surface you

a degree of self-control of

a person

is

fig-

which you can hardly form

notion, gentlemen. Believe me,

him whether

carved

will discover

it

makes no difference

good-looking

a to

good — he — nor whether he despises

looks to an almost inconceivable extent is

rich nor

whether he possesses any of the other advantages

that rank high in popular esteem; to

are worthless, that.

He

him

all

these things

and we ourselves of no account, be sure of

spends his whole

with people, and

I

life

pretending and playing

doubt whether anyone has ever seen

*This pungent way of distinguishing the two kinds of friendship Gurdjieff.

is

attributed to

G.

I.

Socrates

and

Myth

the

of Responsibility

when he grows

the treasures which are revealed

exposes what he keeps inside. However,

37

and

serious

once saw them.

I

.

Believing that he was serious in his admiration of I

me;

I

should

now be

to find out all that Socrates

no

there was

I

for

and

favors,

my good looks. my attendant, whom me in my encounters with I

felt in

myself alone with him. ...

left

my

you must know that

away

sent

had always kept with

I

Socrates,

able, in return for

knew;

limit to the pride that

end in view

this

hitherto

.

supposed that a wonderful piece of good luck had

charms, befallen

With

.

my

naturally

I

supposed that he would embark on conversation of the type

when

that a lover usually addresses to his darling tete-d-tete

y

and

me

the day with

him, and then to train with

was

I

me

I

I

me

him

frequently, with I

time he came he rose

last

He

I

was

in

no hurry

he agreed

to

come. The

was ashamed and

I

returned to the attack, and this time

I

the plea that

it

to

be going,

was too

late for

So he betook himself

nobody sleeping

Here Alcibiades

him

kept

him him

to stay,

on

to go.

at dinner,

in the

after

let

bed the couch

next to mine, and

room but

ourselves.

...

*

interrupts his story to repeat his characteriza-

tion of the inner state

'Symposium 217,

compelled him

to rest, using as a

on which he had reclined there was

I

to

and then,

in conversation after dinner far into the night,

when he wanted

... So

like a lover

go away immediately

to

him

exercise

else present,

my goal.

dine with me, behaving just

to

has designs upon his favorite.

But

no one

was no nearer

dinner, and on that occasion go.

invited

I

gymnasium. ... He took

accept this invitation, but at first

habitual with

is

and went away. Next

need hardly say that

invited

who

me

in the

and wrestled with but

which

in the sort of talk

left

they are

Nothing of the kind; he spent

glad.

trans.

which Socrates

creates in him.

Hamilton, pp. 102-104.

He

has been

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

38

he

"bitten,"

human

said, in the

most painful and

soul or whatever

you

like to call

it

my

in

any

heart or

by philosophical talk."*

how he maneuvered

goes on to relate

sensitive part of

wounded and stung

being. "I have been

And he

himself into lying beside

Socrates and "threw his arms around this 'truly superhuman and wonderful man.' " And thus he remained the whole night long.

Yet Socrates "had the insolence, the infernal arrogance, to laugh at

of

my .

.

youthful beauty and jeer at the one thing .

and believe

the next

morning

meaning of the

gentlemen, or believe

it,

had no more

I

than

act,

really

when

I

proud got

up

slept with Socrates, within the

my

he'd been

if

was

I

not,

it

father or

an elder

brother."**

What do you

On

after that?

slighted, b»ut

suppose to have been

the one

hand

on the other

wisdom and

like for

expected to encounter.

The

my

state

realized that

fortitude result

I

of

mind

had been

reverence for Socrates'

felt a

and courage;

[character, his self-control

•whose

I

1

I

I

had met

a

man

could never have

was that

I

could neither

him and tear myself away way of subduing him to my

bring myself to be angry with

from

his society,

will.

...

I

was

nor find a

utterly disconcerted,

in a state of enslavement to the

never been known,

Alcibiades goes on to

a

man

of

tell

immense and

calm, as well as a

*

man

and wandered about the like of

of what he then saw of Socrates'

—

at Potidea

given on occasion to mysterious periods of

Symposium 218, trans. Hamilton, p. 105. Symposium 219, The Collected Dialogues of Plato,

Books, 1964),

p.

trans.

Michael Joyce, Bollingen

570.

\Symposium 219,

trans.

and Delium. He

unparalleled bravery, strength, and

**Plato,

Huntington Cairns;

which has

t

character in two military campaigns

saw

man

Hamilton,

p.

107.

eds.

Series, no. 71

Edith Hamilton and

(New

York: Pantheon

Socrates

stillness

and inner

and

the

Myth of Responsibility

To what was

listening.

39

Socrates attending in

when he would stand unmoving in the midst of all about him? The answer is given, or rather hinted at,

these periods

the activity

elsewhere in the Platonic writings: In times of

difficulty, Socrates

turns his attention with extraordinary concentration to his *

inner daimon his inner god: conscience. y

voice," Plato has Socrates speak of access to it.** Yet

how few

exposes

this

men who

are the

own

"inner

have

precisely this power, this openness, this act

it is

who can

bear

him. Socrates is.iai,more„.than an interrogator

who who

of remembering, to which Socrates to stay with

Concerning

.illusions;

he

is

leading those

also a presence,

is

a personal force,

through his interaction with the other awakens in him the

taste

of

conscience and inner divinity, a powerful, bittersweet awareness of two pj)posin^moyanjents_within the

human

and the inner freedom of

slavery to the ego

psyche: the inner

self.

The being

of

Socrates transmits the taste of the higher; the interrogation of Socrates brings

And

awareness of one's corruption and

and the discourse of Socrates, who, he

...

is

you

altogether, satyr

.

.

.

I

am

myself using

to the

like the Silenus-figures

...

find his conversation utterly ridiculous at

*Apoi 4oa-c; Euthy. ** Republic, 496c.

He

will

are is

Any-

probably

first, it is

will talk of pack-asses

3b; Rep. 496c; Phaedr. 242b.

They

apart.

such curious words and phrases, the hide, so

of a hectoring satyr.

re-

human-

his talk too

which take

on£„wiia $€teout.tQ-listen to Socrates talking

in

con-

images of Silenus

in this speech.

as applicable to his talk as to his person

extremely

in his

unless you go beyond

and have recourse

which

and

never be able to find anyone

will

motely resembling him ity

says,

so extraordinary, both in his person

versation, that

and

illusions.

thus Alcibiades concludes by referring to both the person

clothed

to speak,

and black-

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

40

smiths, cobblers and tanners, and appear to express the

same

same language over and over

ideas in the

any inexperienced or foolish person

that

way of

at his

speaking. But

if

a

man

is

he

is

almost the

talk of a god,

application; in fact that a

man

.

.

.

it

this talk

and enshrines countless

sentations of ideal excellence,

which

will find that

nothing but sound sense inside, and that

is

to laugh

penetrates within and

sees the content of Socrates' talk exposed,

there

again, so

bound

and

is

repre-

of the widest possible

extends over

all

the subjects with

needs to concern himself.

*

In the entire corpus of the Platonic writings the figure of Alci-

biades stands out as the

man

in between. All the other interlocutors

are generally unequivocally for or against Socrates; Alcibiades alone feels

what

i

s

biades alone

is

a

man who

although he

respect, rates

true but sees matTre""cannot " move, toward

is

is

it.

Alci-

himself in question and, in that

portrayed as running away from Soc-

and going on perhaps

he may be

to a life of utter dissolution,

taken as the most authentic pupil of Socrates in the Platonic dialogues.

Was say,

it

Plato's intention to cast

him

in this light?

It is

difficult to

although the importance of the figure of Alcibiades

is

attested

by the existence of two other dialogues bearing his name: Alcibiades

I

and Alcibiades

II.

Whether

these two shorter pieces were

actually written by Plato or by students of the is

a matter of scholarly dispute.

historical

problems are not

speech of Alcibiades a standard of

what

lies it

critical.

elsewhere.

means

Academy he founded

But from our point of view the For us the importance of the It

provides us with a measure,

to penetrate

behind the world of

appearance.

Facing the situations and problems of

life,

we

are not going to

be seeking the age-old chimera of "things-in-themselves" in the

"Symposium 222,

trans.

Hamilton, pp. 110-11.

Socrates

and

the

Myth

of Responsibility

human

sense of hard entities that exist independent of

We

41 perception.

are looking for a quality of questioning that both exposes our

and reminds us of what we ourselves

illusions

meant and

The Question To be authentic

to be.

limit.

ways that

parallel the

is it

our Socrates

really are

— within

mind and

has to shake the

and are

a certain scale

heart in

impact of Socrates upon Alcibiades, bringing

both sides of our nature into view.

Within a certain

scale

and

limit:

That means of course

the real awakening of conscience requires the action

that

upon us of a

flesh-and-blood guide and the situations his presence can create.

Can a

own Can we

thought, our

however

way

faintly?

thought, reproduce the Socratic shock,

question our world and ourselves in such

that sensitizes us to the

new meaning

pletely

We are

need

conscience

for

—

in a

com-

make

indi-

of that word?

seeking an orientation toward

life

that can

vidual moral responsibility a fact rather than a myth. Socrates, the is not in front of me to lead me into "tempme from evil" creating situations and chalmy egoistic illusions while radiating the force

flesh-and-blood guide, tation"

—

and "deliver

lenges that destroy

of a higher level of being and good. Without the flesh-and-blood guide, can

I

discover the

that

can reach down into

can

I

at least

autonomous power of all

self- interrogation

the unconscious parts of

touch the contours of

this

my

nature,

mental act that

is

the

beginning of virtue? I

take

it

to

be the aim of philosophy

to bring

struggle for conscience in the sense described.

"remem bering"

it

can be called "remembering" in that a

when

contact

is

when

appears, Irecognize that everything

be

it

my selTKas What can

toward the

can be called

in that conscience is^more intimately myself than

anything else injjje;

made

man It

with a force such that

it

appears, and only

Lbav£ understood

to

not be en myself. take the place of Socrates in

Historically

and metaphorically the

my

issue

life?

can be expressed in

terms of a problem about the person of Socrates. Plato allows

him

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

42 to present

himself as a

man who

own is

ignorance. This

is

aft

the Athenians realizes his

the root of the famous Socratic "irony."

a lie in broad daylight

— everyone

reader twenty-five hundred years

What

does not know, whose "wisdom"

he alone of

consists in the fact that

sees through

later.

the teaching behind the Socratic silence, the Socratic

is

There must have been

power of

self-interrogation?

man and

the universe behind this power

— of mere and higher than "knowledge" —

Socratic silence

is

But there must have been behind

ideas about

ideas far, far

theories, concepts,

the quality

seen.

It

including the

it,

beyond

explanations. this

we have

The

already

this silence, this "igno-

rance," a knowledge-not-in-quotation-marks.

The

point

is

obvious to anyone

Without

observation.

real ideas to

who

has attempted serious

self-

guide the attention from within,

the study of oneself soon reaches an insurmountable barrier created in part by the thoughts and concepts that are conditioned into

the

mind by

the surrounding culture or subculture. Ideas are nec-

become free from concepts. Incarnated in a great become pure energy and love the teacher the ideas; they are his being. The teacher is his

essary in order to

—

teacher, great ideas acts

and

lives

knowledge.

But no

man

begins the struggle for self-knowledge and

transformation in this way, in this state of being.

question

insists itself:

the Socratic

What

method of

is

And

self-

so the

the knowledge, the ideas, behind

life? It is

more than the

fascinating histor-

ical

problem of who or what was Socrates' teacher.

less

than the question of

how we

It is

nothing

ourselves are to begin the long,

serious journey of self-inquiry under the guidance of real knowl-

edge.

We

are asking: Are there ideas that can take the place of Soc-

rates for

to

make

myself here and now? Are there ideas that have the power us

still

and bring the whole of ourselves

Ideas that can help us begin the

into question?

work of interrogation by means of

which we penetrate behind the appearances of the

crises

and prob-

Socrates

lems in which we are for

and all

the

Myth of Responsibility

enmeshed? Ideas

43

that call us to the search

conscience in ourselves?

Behind Plato stands the immensity of ness,

Socrates.

What

great-

what immensity stands behind Socrates himself? What

can help us begin the

We turn

now

real

work of inquiry?

to Pythagoras.

ideas

CHAPTER 3 Pythagoras

Was he the first and Was he a man of

Western world?

greatest scientific genius of the

wisdom and psychic power,

preternatural

a

master of the laws of consciousness and a spiritual guide to thousands?

An

incarnation of

God? Or was he only an

extraordinary

combination of mathematician and mystagogue, an

occultist, a

"magician"? All this

and

much more

has been said of Pythagoras. Part man,

part legend, the historical person in Asia

Minor, perhaps

on the

life

enveloped in uncertainty. Born

Samos and

is

569

B.C.,

said to

Samos

to escape

from the tyranny and

in southern Italy, where,

it is

said,

he passed

his early

have flourished

during the reign of the tyrant Polycrates.

B.C. left

island of

is

in the year

to

he rose

He seems

have

in to

settled in

530 have

Croton

to a position of great

came under attack in the year 500 B.C. and, many wanderings in Italy, Pythagoras died at a ripe old age

authority. His society after

at

in

Metapontium.

It is

said by

some

that

he passed

his

middle years

Egypt studying the great knowledge and was taken

as a hostage

when

to

Babylon

the Persian king, Kambyses, invaded Egypt. In

Babylon, so the legend goes, he was also instructed in the teachings of the Zoroastrians.

Like Socrates, Pythagoras wrote nothing, of

it

or, if

he

did,

nothing

has survived the centuries. But unlike the case of Socrates,

Pythagoras had no Plato, no contemporary pupil his teachings into formulations torical

who

systematized

and arguments. The principal

documents about the man and

his teaching date

his-

from no

Pythagoras less

than eight hundred years

tions of stories

he

after

45

lived

and legends of questionable

principal biographies

do not

offer

much

and are mainly literal

collec-

accuracy. These

to the historian in search

of facts about the external details of Pythagoras'

life

nor to the

scholar in search of straightforward information about his ideas.

But they are of great value

as indications

awakening ideas and the manner

in

about the nature of

which they are

This question of the transmission of ideas

is

transmitted.

absolutely central.

neglect has bred tremendous confusion and prejudice through-

Its

out modern history and

is

one of the main reasons

has fallen to so low an estate in

of this issue

is

a

times.

that philosophy

More, the neglect

principal cause of the fact that reasoning and

knowledge themselves have

A

modern

lost their

moral power

in

us that there are two fundamental types of ideas.

may be forming

effect.

The

The

first

show type

Old Testament. The aspect,

man

with trans-

energy of such ideas has been spoken of in

ancient language as a spiritual food, the

one

lives.

regarded as a sort of energy, a higher energy that can,

under very exact conditions, enter into the lifeof

the

our

consideration of the towering figure of Pythagoras will

"manna from

heaven'' of

verbal formulation of these ideas

though of course an important

is

only

aspect, of the condi-

tions necessary for the transmission of the energy they contain.

The other conditions are many and varied, including certain forms of communal relations and the employment of many different kinds of symbolic methods

—

art,

architecture, music, dance; as

well as a certain orientation toward the needs of the body with respect to diet, sex, sleep, physical work, vocation,

and numerous

other factors. Here the verbal, conceptual formulation of ideas

is

only one element in a remarkable sort of overall existential training in

which

a greater energy

is

assimilated in the developing

human

being.

Nevertheless, these formulations, although they are only one aspect of the process by which a

unique

man

works for transformation, have

role in this process, especially in a culture

where the

PHILOSOPHY, WHERE ARE YOU?

46

development of intellect assumes as

our

own and such

we have

role

already identified

Socratic questioning.

The

the effect of bringing a is

a

dominant

role

—

a culture

when we

such

This unique

as existed in ancient Greece.

considered the impact of

authentic formulation of great ideas has

man

to silence, of stopping the

can create

to say, the formulations of great ideas

of self-questioning. "Only

when

mind. That the

in us

state

thoughts are stopped can real

thinking begin."

This oracular-sounding statement

be developed

will

ceed with our discussion of Pythagoras. But the second type of ideas.

And

let

v