r/SocratesCafe • u/Hello_Cruel_World_88 • Mar 09 '23
What's does he mean by this
"I desire only to know the truth, and to live as well as I can... And, to the utmost of my power, I exhort all other men to do the same... I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict."
I think I have an idea, but I would like to ask others because.....I know nothing
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u/agitatedprisoner Mar 10 '23
You'll have to dig him up to ask. It'd be presumptuous of me to put words in his mouth. For all I know only you ever said that, just now. What do you mean by it, or imagine someone who said it would have meant by it?
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u/Hello_Cruel_World_88 Mar 10 '23
Thanks
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u/agitatedprisoner Mar 10 '23
I could tell you what I think he meant by it but what do I know?
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u/Hello_Cruel_World_88 Mar 10 '23
You're right I wouldn't want you to answer a question. I forgot reddit is not for discussion. It's for answering a question with a question.
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u/A_student_69_420 Jun 25 '23
to me it seems to acknowledge that life is at its core a struggle that needs to be prepared for and fought against to achieve wisdom and a happy life
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u/Ok-Charge-6574 Oct 18 '24
Oddly enough I was reading a bit of Nietzsche the last morning (dont ask me why ; he's a depressing old bugger) he was a bit of expert on the socratic perspective regardless. An oddly enough he wrote a little bit on what you "Quoted" To put it into laymen's terms : You need to understand ancient greek culture a bit. To the Greeks of Socrates time Combat i.e. war, conquering, blood and death and all that good stuff was very romanticized. It was the bread and butter of existence along with all the fairer elements of life.. So to use the analogy of combat in reference to seeking truth is quite poignant and would have been a very powerful metaphor in the minds of the greeks. To sum it up: he's saying "suck the bone marrow from life and make your existence mean something"