Socrates and Dorian Gray

"The only thing I know is that I do not know anything" is what Socrates repeated all day long to all those who wanted to talk to him. This posture may seem surprising since all Socrates is represented as a great sage who delivered his knowledge. However, he never took the mask of the wise but that of the ignorant. Why insist so much on his ignorance? What is the point of such an approach?

    We are often prisoners of our certainties and we do not lendpay attention to the opinions of others. When two people discuss a subject where they do not agree, there is often a dialogue of the deaf since the two interlocutors want to be right. Even if it is bad faith, the main thing is not to lose face. Our pride prevents us from listening to each other and encourages us to convince him at all costs. We can lose hours in unnecessary discussions. The wisdom of Socrates consists in not claiming to know. In this way, he does not try to convince his interlocutor. He does not support any thesis but he examines the thesis of the one who claims to know. The goal of Socrates being to show by his questions, the contradictions of his interlocutor. When he asserts both a thing and its opposite or when he supports two incompatible ideas, he realizes that he does not know. Socrates never claims that the other does not know, on the contrary, he flatters him on his wisdom and encourages him to share his knowledge. If from the outset one poses as the holder of knowledge, the one with whom one speaks resists since he also wants to play the role of the scientist. This is the reason why we must instead place ourselves below him so that he delivers us his opinions. It is useless to teach someone something, if they are persuaded to know.The first mission is to show him his ignorance without saying it directly so as not to offend his ego and give him time to place a wall between him and us. Whoever thinks he knows will never listen to anyone who claims to know. It is this illusion that must be destroyed in order to bring it to the path of knowledge.
  
    When our illusions are destroyed, when we realize that our certainties were unfounded, we are lost, disoriented. In the Socratic dialogue of Menon, one of the interlocutors of Socrates compares him to a torpedo fish. To speak with Socrates is to take the risk of being electrocuted, to lose one's certainties and to be helpless. This is not cynicism or sadism. Socrates' goal is not to destroy people's lives, but rather to convert them to philosophy. To philosophize is not to adhere to a dogma or a set of theory, but to seek knowledge. To philosophize is to ask questions and to seek answers by our reason. Philo-sophia is the love of wisdom. But we only want what we miss. If the philosopher desires wisdom, it is because he is conscious of wanting it. To awaken philo-sophia is not to fill the mind of someone with several abstract theories, but to make them want to seek the truth. Admit with Socrates that the only thing we know is that we do not know, it is not to indulge in a sterile ignorance but it is to launch with ardor and ardor on the path of wisdom. It is in this sense that one can understand the Socratic maieutic. His mother was a wise woman, he says in the Theaetetus that he gives birth to souls. For Socrates it is the dialogue that allows one to know oneself. Often our thoughts are obscure, contradictory, we become aware when confronted with those of others. We often have the illusion of being wise when we are alone. It is always difficult to speak with someone sincerely. We hide our secret thoughts on this or that subject and we indulge in sterile discussions where everyone exchanged clichés and ideas received repeated by everyone. This daily chatter hides the essential questions. And conversely when a speech touches our being, we are seized by it. There are words that are neutral, empty, devoid of interest. When a speech sounds right, when it perfectly describes a situation, we experience the truth. We are seized by this speech. Socrates compares the grasp of the beauty of a body to the shock of a beautiful speech. For Socrates, a beautiful speech does not lie in the arrangement of words and the choice of beautiful images. A beautiful speech holds a power of truth. There is no truth on the one hand and good speech on the other. The discourse that reveals truths is by nature beautiful. He elevates our soul. This is the reason why Socrates advises Alcibiades to take care of the beauty of his soul. The beauty of the body is ephemeral.
When you are young you can easily marvel someone with your athlete's body, over time it may not be impossible, but it is in any case more difficult. While one who is able to pronounce beautiful speeches, will always be able to touch the souls. This distinction between the beauty of the soul and that of the body is superbly illustrated by Oscar Wilde in chapter two of the Portrait of Dorian Gray. This is Lord Henry's speech about the ephemeral nature of beauty. Let us hear Master Wilde: "But a day will come when you will be old, ugly, decrepit, where thought has plowed your forehead with its arid furrows, and passion withered your lips with its cruel arms; that day you will have this impression, in all its horror. Now, wherever you go, your charm shines on the world. Will it always be so? You have a face of extraordinary beauty, Mr. Gray. Do not frown. It is a fact. But Beauty is one of the forms of engineering. What did I say ? It even surpasses the Genius, not like him to prove himself. It is one of the supreme realities of this world, like the brightness of the sun, like the awakening of spring, like the reflection in a dark water of that silver shell called the moon. Beauty is not discussed. She reigns by divine right. She makes a prince who possesses her. You smile ? Ah! you will not smile any more, when you have lost it. Yes, Mr. Gray, the gods have been kind to you. But, what they give, the gods are quick to take it back. You have only a few years to truly enjoy, perfectly and fully, life. Your youth will go away, your beauty with it, and you will suddenly discover that it will be necessary to mourn triumphs, or content yourself with mediocre triumphs, made more bitter than defeats by the glorious remembrance of the past. Every month that vanishes brings you closer to a horrible fear. Time is jealous and warlike against your lilies and roses. One day your complexion will be pale, your cheeks hollow, your eyes dull. You will suffer abominably, Ah! as long as your youth is yours, ask her what she can give. Do not dispel the gold of your days ... It is so short, the time that will last your youth! Alas! he is so short! The simple flowers of the hill fade, but to bloom again. This laburnum, when June comes back, will be blond just like today. In a month, this clematis will be covered with purple stars, and from year to year the same purple stars will illuminate the dark night of its foliage. But we will never find youth again. The pulse, which at twenty beats with a happy fever, gradually slows down. Our members are bending, our senses are falling apart. We are soon nothing more than hideous puppets, obsessed by the memory of the passions with which we were foolishly afraid, and exquisite temptations to which we did not have the courage to yield. The youth ! the youth! There is nothing, absolutely nothing in the world, but youth! Dorian Gray has extraordinary but ephemeral beauty. Lord Henry's hedonistic discourse encourages him to enjoy life while still young. Beauty makes a prince who owns it, says Wilde. But this possession is ephemeral. On the other hand, Lord Henry's speech manages to capture and hypnotize Dorian's soul. Despite his age, his decrepit appearance, he manages to touch the souls of his interlocutors. In this sense, he holds the same power as Socrates. Socrates had a legendary ugliness and yet all the young people of his day were seized by his speeches. From then on, Wilde is right to say that beauty is the prince who owns it. Yet he is mistaken in reducing beauty to physical appearance. The beauty also lies in the speech, it is precisely this beauty as a revelation of truth embodied by the old lord. Therefore, if we want to retain the ability to awaken and capture souls, we must cultivate the beauty of our soul, that is, the ability to awaken others to certain truths. This beauty crosses the ages and does not run out with the years.

TAIAMANI HUCK