I was challenged
30 years ago in graduate school by my professor of rhetoric. He did not think
me very good at rhetoric. He said, “Your problem is that you subscribe to the
socratic fallacy. Do you know what that is, Woodward?”
“No Dr. Crain, but I think you are about to tell me.”
“Socrates thought that all you have to do is reveal the truth to people and
they will accept it. Wrong! You know what happened to Socrates don’t you?”
“He drank hemlock.”
“Right. Now P.T. Barnum, there was a communicator!”
I got his point. But, I never accepted it. How could “a sucker born every minute”
P.T. Barnum be held up as a guiding exemplar, while “nothing can be more antagonistic
than meanness to a soul” Socrates held as a fool?
I do not wish to suffer derision and execution. I do want acceptance and affection.
Yet, I would be included in the company of those striving “to make one’s soul
as good as possible.”
According to Webster, the Socratic Method is that of “questioning of another
to elicit a clear expression of something ... implicitly known ...” This is
my method.
According to Britannica, Socrates asserted that, “No one ever wishes for anything
but true good -i.e., true happiness ... men miss their happiness because they
do not know what it is.” I too assert this.
It is of concern to me that I not be one of the “mercenary individuals whom
the many call Sophists ... teach nothing but the opinion of the many ... this
is their wisdom.”
When I was 16, my uncle Ray asked me what I wanted to be. Without pondering
I quickly responded, “hermetic philosopher.” He, a practical man, had no idea
what I meant. Later I imagined a cottage in the woods, my beloved close by,
a few visitors from afar come to discuss important things; a Tom Bombadil and
Goldberry life. Now, I look out my window and find that I’m almost there.
“We should all do what gives us joy...,” says E. B. White. May I ask the questions
that help you identify, pursue and embrace your joy.
Contact me at larry@socraticsolutions.org