Not well acquainted with the Western
intellectual heritage, some Christians readily dismiss all
philosophical endeavor because of the results arrived at by many
ungodly thinkers seeking to elevate their own finite speculations
above God's revelation. However, it must be remembered that all
truth is God's truth. Made in the image of God, man can mirror to a
small degree a portion of his Creator's rationality if he is seeking
after that truth in an honest fashion.
It has been remarked that Western
civilization owes its foundation to the two ancient cities of
Jerusalem (representing Judeo-Christian theism) and Athens
(representing Greek philosophical inquiry). And while the primacy
of the Judeo-Christian contributions must not be forgotten as it
represents God's direct relationship with man, the Athenian
connection must not be forgotten either. For it represents man
trying to come to grips with the world --- both the terrestrial and
the human --- made by that divine Creator.
Ranking among the foremost of ancient
Greek thinkers was the Athenian Socrates. It must be remembered that
the thought of Socrates rested outside the accepted canons of
orthodox Christianity.
For example, Socrates believed that man
existed prior to his earthly incarnation. However, the idea
professed by Socrates that absolute morality exists apart from human
culture and convention has a great deal of truth about it.
Like the current era, those living in
Athens during the time of Socrates found their culture awash in the
chaos of moral relativism. This situation arose in part as a result
of Sophist teaching.
The Sophists were a group of traveling
teachers who would share their insights with those willing to pay,
namely the well-to-do of the Athenian aristocracy. The Sophist
worldview was epitomized by the following aphorism attributed to
Protagoras, pivotal member of the movement: “Man is the measure of
all things.” This meant that man had to rely on his own experience
with the highest arbiter of conduct being the collective conventions
of any given reality and objective morality nonexistent.
Protagoras was not willing to live out
the implications of his own ethical theorizing as he maintained that
individuals ought to follow the practices of their own particular
culture in order to guarantee social stability. The doctrines
promulgated by other Sophists were just as dangerously inconsistent.
Gorgias said truth did not exist nor
could it be communicated. Apparently with the exception of this
truth of course. Thrasymachus believed might did indeed make right.
It was in such an atmosphere that
Socrates undertook his relentless pursuit of the truth in order that
he might live what he termed “the good life”, defined as living
in such a way as to maximize virtue. He attempted to discover what
constituted this morality by subjecting the truth claims propagated
within his culture to careful scrutiny and reflection.
To Socrates, the knowledge of morality
and truth were not merely intellectual commodities to be touted out
to score points in public debates or used to pass the next philosophy
exam. Similar to the Christian view of truth, knowledge of the
ethical was to serve as the basis of action.
It was this conception of truth that
Socrates sought after despite the hardships it eventually brought
him. The events leading to the trial of Socrates occurred
approximately 405 BC when Socrates as a member of the Committee of
500 refused to convict a number of generals accused of military
negligence. The thoughtful sage reflected that to try the military
leaders as a group violated the established judicial norms.
Throughout his trial for allegedly
corrupting the Athenian youth, Socrates was confronted with several
occasions where he could have escaped from authorities or played on
their sympathies in order to spare his life. But instead Socrates
let the truth stand on its own and accepted whatever consequences the
defense of it brought.
Socrates' quest for morality and truth
is to be commended, especially in light of the cultural conditions in
which he found himself. However, the Christian must be careful when
employing this thinker as an historical example worthy of personal
emulation.
For starters, Socrates was only
partially correct when he argued that individuals do evil because
they do not know it is wrong. This might be true in some
circumstances like when one eats an extra cupcake thinking it will be
pure pleasure when in fact it ends up resulting in a stomachache.
However, such is not always the case.
I Timothy 2:14 says, “And Adam was
not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.”
Adam, therefore, fell into sin knowing full well what he was doing
when he went against God's command not to eat the forbidden fruit.
Even though Socrates is to be commended
for searching for the truth in light of the spiritual darkness that
gripped Athens in the form of Sophist philosophy and pagan religion,
that search was only partial at best. For Jesus Christ is the way,
the truth and the life. If one's quest for truth is not to be washed
away like the house built on the sandy shore mentioned in Matthew 7,
it must ultimately be based upon Him.
By Frederick Meekins