"I think, by Zeus," says Socrates, "that I am far removed from knowing
the cause of any of these things. I do not even admit that by adding one
to one I obtain two, by such an addition. For I wonder how it is that
each was supposed to be one when by itself, while now, that they have
been added to one another, they have become two. Neither can I convince
myself that if one thing divides a thing in two, that this division is
the cause of it becoming two. For this would be the opposite way of
making two. But when I heard somebody reading something from a book,
written by Anaxagoras as he said, to the effect that it is reason which
had arranged everything and was the cause of everything, I rejoiced at
this cause.... Now if one were to search for the cause of all things, of
their origin, existence and passing, he should only find out what is the
best way to maintain their existence.... Hence it is not meet that man
should care for anything else in regard to himself as well as to all
other things, but for that which is best and most excellent, and then he
would also know the worst about things, for the understanding of both
is the same. Considering this, I was glad to have found a teacher who
knows about the cause of all things, who suited me, I mean Anaxagoras,
and who would now tell me, first whether the earth is round or flat, and
after telling me that, would also explain to me the necessity for it and
the cause, by pointing to the fact that it was better that it should be
so. And when he claimed that the earth was the center of things, I hoped
he would explain why it was better that it should be the center, and
when he had explained that, I was resolved that I would not ask for any
other cause. In the same way I was going to inquire after the cause of
the sun, the moon, and the other stars, etc.... For I did not believe
that after claiming all this to have been arranged by reason, he would
be dragging in any other cause than that of being best to have it just
so. And this wonderful hope I had to abandon, my friends, when I
continued to read and saw that the man accomplished nothing by reason
and adduces no other reasons relating to the arrangement of things, but
quotes air, and water, and ether, and many other astonishing things.
"And it seemed that it was as if some one said Socrates accomplishes all
things by reason, and then, when he began to enumerate the cause of
everything I do, were to say first that I am sitting here because my
body consists of bones and sinews, and that the bones are hard and are
differentiated by joints, and the sinews so constructed that they can be
extended and shortened, etc. And further, if he tried to name the causes
of our discussion, he would refer to other similar things, such as
sound, and air and hearing, and a thousand and one other things, quite
neglecting the true cause, viz., that it suited the Athenians better to
condemn me, and that it suited me for this reason to stay here and
seemed more just to me to bear patiently the punishment which they have
ordered. For I believe that my bones and sinews would have gone long ago
to the dogs or been carried to the Boeotians, had I not considered it
more just and beautiful to atone to the state than to flee.
"It is very illogical, then, to name such causes. But if any one were to
say that I should not be able to do what I please without these things
(sinews and bones, and whatever else I may have), he would be right. But
it would be a very thoughtless contention to say that these things are
the cause of my actions, instead of my free choice to do the best. That
would show an inability to distinguish the fact that in all things the
cause is one thing, and another thing that without which the cause could
not be cause. And it seems to me that it is precisely this which some
call by a wrong name in considering it as the cause. For this reason
some put a whirlwind from heaven round the earth and others rest it on
air as they would a wide trough on a footstool."
So far Socrates, whose words I ask you to read repeatedly and carefully,
though they may look a little old-fashioned. This quotation is somewhat
lengthy, but I thought best not to cut it too short and to present it in
its main outlines.
This quotation says on the whole the same thing which I have said in my
proceeding letters. According to Socrates, all our thoughts and actions
have a wider and more general purpose, which he calls the "good," so
that we even do evil for the sake of good. A crime always aims at some
particular good. Evil is misunderstood good. Applied to natural science,
this means that it misunderstands the interrelation of all its fine
discoveries. And this charge is true even to-day. Although the natural
interrelations are more and more recognized from day to day, still the
understanding of the absolute inter-connection continues to be
overlooked, especially that of the intellect with material things, or of
the ideal with the real. Natural science teaches after the manner of the
gospel of John: Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob. But it forgets
to teach that all these genitors were not genitors in the last analysis,
but begotten by old Jehovah himself. The uncultivated condition of
Grecian natural sciences may have been ground enough for Socrates to
think little of it. We, on the other hand, have to-day good reasons for
thinking highly of natural science, and for this very reason I take
pains to illustrate by its prominent example in what respect the neglect
of the universal world thought results in a narrow conception of the
world.
We may well rejoice more lastingly than Socrates when natural science
teaches us how it happens that everything has its origin, life, and end,
because the knowledge of natural science has been far more enriched by
modern experiences than it was at the time of Anaxagoras. Nevertheless
you must not stop learning furthermore from logic that all growing,
coming into existence, living, and passing away is but a change of form.
The causes of natural science are indeed not causes, but effects of the
universe. They are reasonable effects of reason in so far as the latter
is not an isolated part, but interconnected with the universe. To
repeat: Our intellect is not ours, it does not belong to man, but it
together with man belongs to the universe. Reason and the world, the
true, the good, and the beautiful, together with Godhood which you
shall not idolize but understand in the spirit and in the world, in
truth and in reality, are all one thing, one being, and everywhere
eternal and the _same_.
Socrates shows that he has as yet only a narrow anthropomorphic, not a
cosmic conception of the "best and good" and of reason. He was dominated
by the prejudice which still holds sway over the uncultured believers in
God, that reason is older than all the rest of the world, that it is the
ruling and antecedent creator. Our conception of logic, on the other
hand, teaches that the spirit which we have in our brain is but the
emanation of the world spirit. And this latter must not be conceived as
a nebulous world monster, not as an enormous spirit, but as the actual
universe, which in spite of all change and all variation is eternally
one, true, good, reasonable, real, and supreme.