For some reason, I never quite embraced Plato. For that matter, I don't quite feel I ever embraced philosophy. I've taken two philosophy classes while in college, and while that barely gives me any grounds for offering criticism, I feel that I am quite disappointed at what philosophy turned out to be.
I used to romanticize the notion of philosophy before college. I thought philosophy was all about sitting around and talking about deeply human matters. I thought philosophers asked, "what is the meaning of life? What is religion? What is the meaning of experience" ad infinitum... but, to my surprise, that's not what it seems to be. I barely remember what my first philosophy class was about--something about Descartes and the whole "I think therefore I am" thing. All we did in that class was examine arguments as if they were some sort of mathematical formula. The whole class was about logic reasoning etc. etc. and it seemed like it was a math class more than something belonging to the Humanities. And then I took my second philosophy course entitled "philosophy in literature." I (foolishly) thought this class would have a heavier emphasis on literature than it did philosophy, but I was wrong. It's a bit less mathematical--but nonetheless, it's all about evaluating the validity of arguments with (goodie) an emphasis on irony. Need I tell you that I am wholeheartedly opposed to the whole idea of irony? I feel that irony is the slippery snake that problematizes language by undermining its ability to convey meaning. Thus, I feel that nothing I learned in this class truly stuck. It was very unfortunate because I would have otherwise been interested in some of the literature we looked at. Although...a huge chunk of it was Plato. Again, I've encountered Plato in several other classes too (philosophy, literature and history) and I feel quite the same about him. It's not that I don't see value in his work (I'm pretty sure a whole bunch of Western ideology is based on his writings), but for some reason it just goes through one ear and out the other for me. I'm not inherently biased or anything...I just involuntarily can't pay attention.
But anyhow...after re-reading The Trial and Death of Socrates for the third time--one thing stuck (miraculously). At some point during his defense, Socrates says, "The unexamined life is not worth living."
This idea has a certain poignancy to it. If there is anything I truly like about Socrates, it's his philosophy about not truly knowing anything and his quest to challenge the "wisdom" others claim to have without truly possessing. And yet, even when faced with the abyss of the vast unknown, Socrates always champions questioning.
Whether I'm taking this entirely out of context, I don't know--but I really do like the idea that one must constantly question one's life instead of just passively believing in whatever standards/norms/ideologies/social constructs/whatever else they are conditioned to believe. I think that one of the reasons why people are often faced with meaninglessness is because they are afraid to ask questions. But, if we don't seek to uncover some sort of understanding about our existence, how are we ever to arrive at meaning? If we just accept the role that society (or whatever else) prescribes for us, then we'd just be living our lives like puppets. And from what I've seen, it's fantastically easy to fall into a meaningless and passive existence...there are so many people who wake up and realize they don't even know what has happened to them for the past few years of their lives...and (even worse) there might even be people who never wake up--they just live, work, perform whatever social conventions dictate, retire, die and so on.
I don't know... I can't account for much because my experience of life is limited. But I can say one thing--no one is ever going to be sitting on their couch and find that a ray of light flashes over their head and drops "meaning" onto their lap. Those kinds of things don't just come. You, as a living person, have to make it. What is the meaning of life? Quite frankly, whatever you want it to be! That's what I think at this stage in my life. Some people find meaning in love, in religion, in friendship, in their careers, in art, in creation, in idling about, etc. etc. But however a person chooses to live, act, think, feel--I really hope that they do so with meaning, with awareness, with passion, with fire... and, on the same note, I hope that more people in the world will realize that things will just work out better if we all, as people, just let the other people around us have more room to grow and to express themselves in whatever way is meaningful to them.
I'd love to say more...but I've got many more painful hours of studying ahead of me. (How lamentable it is that at the moments when I am most preoccupied and stressed with things like exams, I feel the greatest desire to write--I wish I could perpetuate this feeling post-finals week)
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