On the last page of the Euthydemus Socrates gives his account of teachers and experts in our society. This is in response to his friend Crito’s perplexity on whom he should have teach and mentor his son.
Crito says;
“I am in doubt about what I ought to do with my son. Critobulus is now at the age when he needs someone who will do him good. Now whenever I am in your company your presence has the effect of leading me to think it madness to have taken such pains about my children in various other ways, such as marrying to make sure they would be of noble birth on the mothers side, and making money so that they would be as well off as possible, and then give no thought to their education. But on the other hand whenever I take a look at any of those persons who set up to educate men, I am amazed; and every last one of them strikes me as utterly grotesque, to speak frankly between ourselves. So the result is that I cannot see how I am to persuade the boy to take up philosophy.”
Socrates then gives his assessment of the so called experts. He says:
“Don’t you realize that in every pursuit most of the practitioners are paltry and of no account whereas the serious men are few and beyond price? For instance don’t athletics, money making and leadership strike you as fine things? And in each of these cases don’t you notice that the majority give a laughable performance of these respective tasks?
Socrates suggests that if you think an activity is worth pursuing, pay no attention to what the experts say. Just give serious consideration to the thing itself and then pursue it and practice it.
Think about the so called experts in your life, at your place of employment, within your family and in the neighborhood? Ask yourself if what Socrates says applies to the people that come to mind.
One can use an example like the stock market. Many people stress, strain and fuss about what their returns are on their stock portfolio, they day trade, they read stock reports, they watch Bloomberg TV, with the thought that they are listening to experts who will guide them well within the market. But if you dig deep, look at things yourself and exclude these “expert views” you will find that most of the market moves in an unpredictably or random way. Only over the long run can things be seen and predicted. Once you determine this you can pick the reasonable approach to investing and devote your time to better things like the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.
Is there any other pursuit that is better than the pursuit of wisdom, the activity of philosophy?
Moralities and the Moral Republic 