If Socrates was the founder of Western thought?

Question

And Socrates believed in minimal material possessions, why is the West so materialistic?

Answer 1

Socrates would, I believe, be quite pleased with the current materialistic state of the west. Remember, mankind has been INFLUENCED by philosophy, but men are by-and-large NOT philosophical themselves.

Socrates held up (by example) his way of life for those who wished to enter his realm, of becoming philosophical. He thought the ascetic way of life helped to reach deeper into philosophical discoveries.

He would, I believe, say that there is no need for society to live the the way one who is philosophical chooses to live.

However, there is much perceived good in the way we live which is owed to Socrates. For example, that we perceive charity as a virtue and not a weakness started with his teachings.

The ethic of ancient times had a much different perception of what you might refer to as society's underbelly. You would think of it as cold, harsh, cruel and uncaring. Socrates ignited a change in that way of thinking.

Answer 2

That's a big if! We are so far removed from Socrates' world that we can't even conceive of how he could be the founder of our civilisation.
Before the Chinese had discovered ink and gunpowder and the Western world implemented them in warfare and printing, the world would have stayed a bit more sane than ours. Thinking has little influence on the development of history and civilization can only develop according to it's technical achievements. The more technical a society becomes, the more it uses unreplaceable resources with diminishing returns. We are "eating, drinking and making merry" before our world structure collapses--this is materialism.
There is nothing wrong with valuing goods, but do we need all the junk that corporate society is throwing at us? Would you rather have, say, an original masterpiece hanging in your house, or one hundred cheap reproductions of Impressionist works? We have mass-produced ourselves into apathy and depression.

Answer 3

Using Aristotle's logic, Socrates defined a method of discourse designed to reveal the truth of an argument - Socratic method. This directly translates into scientific method.

Socrates also believed in the gods, and many other things that are not rational...

Answer 4

Your leap of illogic is quite imaginative.

You have heard Democrats speak--they do not believe in categorical/scientific definitions.
You have heard the Republicans speak--they believe only their leader can think and that he's infallible because he gets messages from heaven.
Bullswool.

Which of these Medieval groups of non-thinkers did you expect to protect your rights claimed under regulations in our constitution?

Which group did you expect to argue for "nothing in excess"--Aristotle's brilliant restatement of Socrates' basic idea.

It's not being anti-materialism; it's rather "defining life as quality of self-managed and self-created existence, and not the number of physical objects one can amass by theft.".

As an Objectivst, a thinker who deals with real space-time, I honor Aristotle as the father of many areas of Western thought. Socrates taught the man who taught him--Plato, who is the father of postmodernism (Easternism). But the basic idea is "nothing in excess", not "as little as possible".

The key to happiness I argue is learning to define by prioritized inner workings not childish appearances;
realistic honesty about what one knows and only gueses, love of beauty, justice and honor, and the desire for selfish liberty--freedom from dictatorship and any wish to enslave anyone else--this is "life". The true American Way our founders were aiming to achieve.

With those ideas in place--then we'd have the foundatiuon of a life worth living. Without such concepts, protected under a government that secures rights to cindividuals, one is living in a totalitarian state. And that is not living--in this country or anywhere else.And that's where we are--electing Medieval totalitarians, one group inept, the other far worse.

Answer 5

The West is not listening to the wisdom of Socrates or Jesus. Money don't buy you happiness.

Answer 6

He was one of the founders.

And the answer to the rest of your question is because things change. Sometimes they change for the worse, sometimes for the better, but you have to expect lots of change in the 2500 years since Socrates' day.

Answer 7

your jumping from Ancient Greece to Modern Democratic Philosophy threre is about 2000 years you need to fill in there babe go back to school and study some more

Answer 8

good question