Is it true? Is is necessary? Is it kind?

Before we speak we should consider our words. Is what we say the truth? Are our words considerate of the person(s) spoken to and/or spoken about. Are our words necessary to any good purpose? If the answer to any of these questions is no, it is wise to be silent. For those of you who have not read it, here is the passage from sections 117e-118a of Plato’s dialogue Phaidon narrating the death of Socrates, as translated by Harold North Fowler (although I have taken to liberty of restoring the Greek names in the place of Fowler’s Latinized forms). The passage quoted here begins shortly after Plato’s description of Socrates drinking the hemlock:

“Then we were ashamed and controlled our tears. He walked about and, when he said his legs were heavy, lay down on his back, for such was the advice of the attendant. The man who had administered the poison laid his hands on him and after a while examined his feet and legs, then pinched his foot hard and asked if he felt it. He said ‘No’; then after that, his thighs; and passing upwards in this way he showed us that he was growing cold and rigid. And again he touched him and said that when it reached his heart, he would be gone. The chill had now reached the region about the groin, and uncovering his face, which had been covered, he said—and these were his last words—‘Kriton, we owe a cock to Asklepios. Pay it and do not neglect it.’ ‘That,’ said Kriton, ‘shall be done; but see if you have anything else to say.’ To this question he made no reply, but after a little while he moved; the attendant uncovered him; his eyes were fixed. And Kriton when he saw it, closed his mouth and eyes.”

“Such was the end, Echekrates, of our friend, who was, as we may say, of all those of his time whom we have known, the best and wisest and most righteous man.” Thus, according to Plato, Socrates’s last words were, “Kriton, we owe a cock to Aisklepios. Pay it and do not neglect it.” In Greek, this line is: “? Κρ?των, τ? ?σκληπι? ?φε?λομεν ?λεκτρυ?να. ?λλ? ?π?δοτε κα? μ? ?μελ?σητε.”

We do not know if Socrates really said this line, because all we have is Plato’s account of Socrates’s death in the Phaidon and, as I discuss at great length in this article I published in March 2019, Plato took a great deal of artistic license when it came to his portrayal of Socrates’s life and words. There is no doubt that Socrates was a real person and that he really was forced to drink hemlock, but, when it comes to some of the minute details of his life, like his exact last words, things get a bit hazier. Plato would not have been above making up fitting last words for Socrates for the sake of his literary narrative.

Lots of people have tried to read deep, philosophical meanings into this line. Asklepios was the Greek god who presided over healing and medicine and it was customary for people to sacrifice a rooster to him when they were healed of their illness. Therefore, many people have interpreted Socrates’s last words as meaning that life is a disease and death is the cure, which is, of course, a very dark way of interpreting this line.

I may end up sounding like an unphilosophical idiot when I say this, but I have never really given much attention to those theories. I have always just seen Socrates’s last words in Plato’s Phaidon from a literary standpoint. I have always seen these last words as a characterization of the sort of man Socrates really was: a man who was so devout and so morally scrupulous that he dedicated his dying breath to make sure that his last debt was paid.

Unlike other philosophers of his time and ours, Socrates never wrote anything down but was committed to living simply and to interrogating the everyday views and popular opinions of those in his home city of Athens. Socrates has a unique place in the history of happiness, as he is the first known figure in the West to argue that happiness is actually obtainable through human effort.He was born in Athens,Greece in 460 BC; like most ancient people, the Greeks had a rather pessimistic view of human existence.Happiness was deemed a rare occurrence and reserved only for those whom the gods favored.

The idea that one could obtain happiness for oneself was considered hubris, a kind of overreaching pride, and was to be met with harsh punishment. Socrates (as seen through the lens of Plato) can be said to espouse the following unique ideas about happiness: All human beings naturally desire happiness. Happiness is obtainable and teachable through human effort.

Happiness is directive rather than additive: it depends not on external goods, but how we use these external goods (whether wisely or unwisely). Happiness depends on the “education of desire” whereby the soul learns how to harmonize its desires, redirecting its gaze away from physical pleasures to the love of knowledge and virtue. Virtue and Happiness are inextricably linked, such that it would be impossible to have one without the other.

The pleasures that result from pursuing virtue and knowledge are of a higher quality than the pleasures resulting from satisfying mere animal desires.Pleasure is not the goal of existence, however, but rather an integral aspect of the exercise of virtue in a fully human life. Cheers!