Luke Normile

November 11, 2010

Socrates the Gadfly and the Question of Purpose

“What you say is ignoble, fellow, if you suppose that a man who is of even a little

benefit should take into account the danger of living or dying, but not rather consider this

alone whenever he acts: whether his actions are just or unjust, and the deeds of a good

man or a bad” (78-79). The question of human motives arises repeatedly throughout

Plato’s Euthephro and Apology. In each dialogue, Socrates either directly or indirectly

calls into question the motives of people who claim to be acting on the basis of justice.

As one who freely admits that he knows nothing, Socrates may at first not seem to hold

any authority concerning the question of

Any action can be questioned by asking what purpose that action was done for.

For instance, you might ask yourself, “Why am I reading this essay?” Your answer to

this question would probably be something like, “In order to learn about Socrates.” But

this does not truly answer the question, as you can then ask yourself, “For what reason

should I learn about Socrates?” Any answer that is given can be further questioned in

this way. Given this, one may arrive at two conclusions. The first is that purpose can be

questioned in this way ad infinitum. If this is true, purpose loses its meaning. The

second is that there is a stopping point to our questioning, a goodness that comes from

certain actions that we do. This goodness is beyond human wisdom, as human beings.

but Socrate
 Socrates leaves open the question of whether human actions can have value. His

famous statement, “The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being,” does not

imply that the examined life is worth living, as it may be that the idea of “worth” is

simply a human invention.

Both conclusions about goodness have philosophical implications. If it is true

that goodness does not exist, then clearly nothing can have a purpose, as goodness is the

only possible end. If there is no purpose, then there is no purpose in believing that there

is no purpose. This does not mean that one who has arrived at the unquestionable

conclusion that there is no purpose can simply change his own mind in order to be

happier. In fact, this person would have zero reason TO change his mind and start

believing in reason, as

Socrates seems to have taken the second choice. One philosophical implication of

this conclusion and the questioning that was needed in order to arrive at it is that the only

Part of trying to do good is trying to understand what is good, because understanding of

what is good helps one to do good. However, some people do not KNOW that trying to

understand what is good is good. These people are still TRYING to do good, so they are

still good.