I actually hate philosophy. Whilst reading Thee Cambridge Companion to Abelard, I yawned my way through the philosophical sections before carefully picking my way through the biographical and theological ones. It's odd because I fucking love religion and for the west at least it's closely intermixed with philosophy, but I never could gather the same amount of interest in it. Perhaps because often philosophers come up with ideas that, whilst logical, have little to do with reality. As oft-quoted Plato's The Republic is, no one has ever implemented it. Religion on the other hand can be irrational, but it still finds expression in daily life. I can read a line in the Bible and see how it played out in society.

However I did enjoy reading one particular piece of philosophy, and it changed my life forever. It's Plato's Apology, which is (supposedly) a paraphrasing of Socrates' defense during his capital court case that ultimately resulted in his execution.^* We should've learned about Socrates back in World History, but I'll give a review: Socrates often walked around the marketplace and would approach alleged wise men and ask them questions like, "What is love?" or "What is bravery?" And they'd give some answers and Socrates would point out the contractions, so they'd have to redefine their answers. This would go on until Socrates would demonstrate that they actually had a stupid answer to begin with and don't know anything.

Of course this is humiliating if you had a reputation for your knowledge, and eventually Socrates pissed off too many people with his antics. He was brought up on charges of disrespecting the gods and corrupting the youth.^** He was eventually sentenced to death by drinking poison. Although he had the opportunity to flee the city and live in exile, Socrates chose to stay and he is considered to have one of the great philosophical deaths because he spent the time after drinking the poison debating about the nature of the afterlife calmly and without fear.

The Apology completely turned my life around because it humbled me. In his defense, Socrates mentioned that the most famous oracle in the ancient Greece said he was the wisest man in the world. He thought that was incorrect, so he approached someone he thought was surely wiser. And that's how he started his marketplace routine. In the midst of his journey, he realized why the oracle said that about him: He was the greatest fool of all, but unlike everyone else he realized his ignorance. Reading this forced me to let go of a lot of my prejudices. If you had met me in high school for example, I would've likely spewed a long, hateful tirade about George Bush and the Iraq War. Nowadays I'll give a much more measured response because I've come to the realization I have no fucking idea. I wasn't in the room when they made those decisions, I never went to Iraq and found out what the situation was on the ground instead of what was filtered through the news, and I only know five people personally in the military so I can't say what "the troops" want. And this is all thanks to Socrates. Whenever I enter a new situation, he's always in the back of my mind telling me, "You're a fucking idiot. Don't pretend like you know what you're doing. Fucking stand back and evaluate things before you come to a conclusion. Otherwise you're a pompous asshole."

^* I say supposedly because Socrates' other student, Xenophon, also wrote his own version that is vastly different. There are some accounts that Socrates actually didn't say a damned thing and Plato and Xenophon wrote down what he should've said.

^** Ostensibly. Other sources besides Plato says that there was resentment toward Socrates' actions as head of the popular assembly. When there was mob justice to put nine generals to death, he refused because that would go against the law.