Saturday, March 13, 2010

What a great job Socrates did in ancient Greek

One of the greatest disappointments in life is that there are so many intolerant people. It hurts me deeply, when I see somebody carelessly emitting remarks of discrimination, inconsideration, and of lacking understanding. It hurts me still, when I discover that somebody in question is quite sure of his or her own opinion, never doubting the truth of the extreme view that he or she holds.

It is at such a time that I seriously consider the limits of human intellect and imagination, and what a great job Socrates did in ancient Greek. Socrates stressed the importance of the awareness of his own ignorance. How more intelligent could a human being be rather than to know that he or she does not know everything? Even if one makes a judgment about something, since he or she needs to make a judgment from time to time, a person of wisdom would take the own judgment with a grain of salt.


Socrates

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your opinion of intolerant people is quite refreshing. I also have a similar feeling of being hurt but I also feel sadness for them, because of their blatant unawareness of their ignorance. I also wonder why intolerant people are so set in their opinions and judgements…

Anonymous said...

There has long been a general view among many Japanese that the Americans are overly dependent on rules and logic, overlooking the importance of other indefinite factors such as reason, sentiment etc. An example often used is the difference seen in the legal system/culture where Japan has long been used to simplified contracts leaving greater room for individual interpretations and discussions of good faith, while the US has ensured that the contracts covered "everything" leaving little room (if any) for individual interpretations, consequently facilitating related legal actions upon any contractual violations.

My point is that the determined focus on logic and rules may have derived from the strong recognition of our individual "limitations", while Japan (or the Asians for that matter) tend to be more optimistic in regards to the boundaries of our "competence" and "goodness". While an over-dependence on logic and rules can occasionally be problematic, it is important to understand that such systems are infact always built within our empirical knowledge based on our "competence" and "goodness" and I consider it to be a much safer concept than being over-confident and over-optimistic in ourselves, given what human history has shown and continues to show us in regards to what takes place when our weaknesses and incompetence emerge.
SK

yuko said...

Regrettably, we sometimes lack attention of the way we behave and talk when we are in the majority, while we experience deep grief as an individual.

I suppose we should keep in mind that the unmeasurable depth and width of soul every person has whenever and wherever we are.


The more we know who we are, the less we insist ourselves and discriminate others by their appearances.

Anonymous said...

>I also wonder why intolerant people are so set in their opinions and judgements…

>It hurts me still, when I discover that somebody in question is quite sure of his or her own opinion, never doubting the truth of the extreme view that he or she holds.


I am a little afraid whether I would in some way be counted among the intolerant peoples. Sadly, I cannot forget one person for so long time. Is that the same meaning of "never doubting the truth of the extreme view that he or she holds"? I believed this might be the true love until today..
I do not want him to think I am such an intolerant people.