Don’t Go Up to Look Down

Last updated on: January 22, 2018 at 3:57 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

Don’t Go Up to Look Down 2018-01-22T15:57:34-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

4 When Athens Met Jerusalem

A little learning did not help me, but when forced in graduate school to think hard, my life changed. If the result of our education is only to gain power to do bad, then we have failed to be truly educated. Instead, learning should make character better.

This was a hard lesson for me to learn. It was all there in the Bible, but it was reading Plato in my mid-twenties that got through to me. I had not heard the words before and so heard old truths in new ways that forever changed me.

Socrates begins Republic by traveling to the Piraeus, the port city of Athens. This is steep walk downhill and Socrates journeys with the young Glaucon (whose name means “Bright Eyes”). He gets to the port city and honors the gods, but then is heading back up to his home.

He is going back to the place where he helped create philosophy. He was going to the city of the Acropolis and of beauty. He was fleeing a city of strangers dedicated to money making. Isn’t that splendid for an intellectual?

It was not. He needed to journey back down to the port city, not just because there were people there who needed his help, but because he needed help as well. In Book I of Republic, he crushes a bad man, but does using the sophistry of his opponent. He wants to win, not persuade.

That is a great danger. Intellectual victory that is not based on truth and our best effort to find truth is corrupting even if our conclusions are correct!

So far this lesson for Socrates is not so controversial. Most of us claim to follow the argument where it leads. However, Plato makes a deeper point at the end of Book IV (445c). Socrates has helped his students gain a great height in argument. They do not just see, but feel that justice is better than injustice. Yet Socrates calls them to a further heights to see the forms of evil.

This was imprudent at best and wicked at worst.

These young men are making progress, but Socrates distracts them from the Good by refusing to quit when finished. He does not just wish to persuade, to use reason, but to demolish evil. This sounds good until one remembers that toying with bad ideas for no reason is distracting. The yong men in Book V will miss the point and go off on tangents that will take a great deal of time to resolve. It is not obvious that most of them (besides Glaucon) make it.

Once Socrates introduces the forms of evil government, they must pursue the discussion. One cannot retreat from an idea, because that is a failure of intellectual courage. Socrates has no reason, however, to introduce bad ideas that are foreign to the young men. We must answer the questions we have, not the questions that others force on us.

Socrates has made a mistake and it is one that will take him a great deal of time to correct.

Seeing this made me wish, as a student and a teacher, to be true to real questions, but not to use heights gained in reason to pose abstract questions that nobody was having or needed to have. Instead, my focus must remain on what is good, true, and beautiful spending time on other things only when absolutely necessary.

Follow the Logos where He leads. Never confuse this with the idle intellectual curiousity of one more interested in playing mental games, or seeking completion of all possibilities. Follow reason to truth, not to curiousity about the very forms of evil.

God help and forgive me. May I always move downward to help myself and others take the greater, or upward, path.

Spiritual Reflections

Previous Post

January 14, 2018

Three Signs You've Found a Good College

Next Post

January 16, 2018 Fire and Fury: A Sympathetic Account of the President

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian group is known for their rejection of military service and voting?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Anglican Catholic Amish Pentecostal

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »