For those who want to ruin their lives, Socrates constitutes a model to imitate. All they need to do is to make enemy after enemy, irritate lots of powerful people, and when retaliation comes, they can stay immobile like sitting ducks, waiting for a death sentence, instead of seizing the opportunity to escape.
If Socrates had any profound insights about the good life, I am afraid that he forgot to practise them himself. He made lots of speeches about seeking the truth and caring for one’s soul, but when push came to shove, his mind went into a loop: his logic grew detached from reality, indifferent to practicalities.
In Plato’s work “Gorgias,” sections 492a to 494c, we find an entrancing discussion between Callicles and Socrates about the good life. Callicles defends the position of extreme hedonism, calling for satisfying one’s appetites without any constraints or concern for the costs.
Socrates disagreed with Callicles. He thanked Callicles for speaking openly and expressing what most people think but are afraid to say, namely, that the best lifestyle consists of seeking pleasure at any cost, and that everything else in life is pretty much irrelevant.
Callicles confirmed his standpoint and listened attentively to Socrates’ answer. Socrates replied by using the metaphor of the jars, arguing that a self-disciplined, orderly lifestyle is far superior to a dissolute life.
The metaphor of the jars
Socrates’ metaphor of the jars goes as follows. Imagine two men who have embraced opposite lifestyles; the first man does what Callicles was proposing, and lives only for the moment; in contrast, the second man follows Socrates’ recommendation and leads a self-disciplined life.
What will happen to those two individuals in the long term? Socrates employs jars as examples for assets. The jars stand for material and immaterial assets: houses, land, herds, mechanical or artistic talents, or any other asset.
Imagine that the two men possess a series of jars filled with valuable contents. In Ancient Greece, this means wine, honey, olive oil, or grain. In modern times, the jars could mean shares in the stock market, a professional accreditation, gold, silver or any other type of money, for example.
Socrates correctly depicts the long-term consequences of a dissolute life compared to a self-disciplined lifestyle. The self-disciplined man will take care of the jars, keep them clean, use their contents prudently and wisely, and refill the jars timely.
In the long term, the self-disciplined man will benefit from the stability and reliability of his lifestyle. He will not have sleepless nights, worrying whether he will have enough to eat next week or next year. His self-assurance will be based on the reliability of his assets.
Long-term implications
Socrates made a dim forecast for the dissolute man because, in view of his short-term orientation, he won’t take care of the jars properly. He will not keep them clean and well-preserved, nor will he replenish them in due time. The jars will naturally decay and eventually be ruined due to the man’s poor care.
As a result, Socrates argued, the man seeking pleasure will end up suffering the consequences of his short-term mentality. Sooner or later, he will find himself in a difficult position due to the mismanagement of his jars. His happiness will decrease, and he will have to work extra time to replenish his assets.
Socrates regarded the self-disciplined man as the model to imitate. If we want to increase our chances of steady happiness and well-being, we should adopt a self-disciplined lifestyle and stay away from dissolute people, no matter how charming they may come across.
I couldn’t agree more with Socrates’ insights about the good life; those correspond to the countermeasures against misery in the works of Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860). He presented those countermeasures mainly in his essay collection “Parerga and Paralipomena.”
Unfortunately, in contrast to Schopenhauer, Socrates did not follow his own advice consistently; the Socrates’ image painted by historians is that of an unkempt, barefoot man who devoted little energy to his household and family, and who preferred to hang around in Athens’ marketplace, debating on every subject under the sun.
For this reason, I have serious doubts about the authenticity of the metaphor of the jars. Does it reflect a conversation held by Socrates, or did Plato make it up from beginning to end?
Important discrepancies
On the one hand, I can understand that a good philosopher favoured a life of reason; but on the other hand, I cannot help noticing the vast discrepancies between Socrates’ own life and the metaphor of the jars.
To make things worse, Socrates held rhetoric teachers like Gorgias in low regard. He accused them of taking money from their students in exchange of teaching them techniques to win in debates and legal procedures, irrespective of whether those techniques were used for upholding or distorting the truth.
While I understand Socrates’ dislike for wandering sophists like Gorgias, I find it incomprehensible that Socrates wouldn’t offer his services to teach better ethics and better rhetoric.
Why did Socrates not charge money for his teachings? Why did he not take proper care of his jars, which in this case, mean his talents as a philosopher and public speaker? He allowed his talents to be used for free by anyone instead of exploiting them properly.
Socrates abhorred “the unexamined life,” as quoted by Plato in his “Apology,” section 38a, but did he actually examine his own life? If we trust Plato’s “Gorgias,” Socrates had grasped the advantages of leading a self-disciplined life. Nevertheless, when it comes to putting his ideas into practice, I wouldn’t rate Socrates very high.
I must remark that Socrates’ suicide constitutes the ultimate insult against the good life. It doesn’t make any sense for good individuals to live ethically and peacefully, only to be accused by ill-willed people before a biased jury, which will surely give a devastating verdict.
Plato’s “Crito” recounts that Socrates had the opportunity to flee Athens and go into exile. Instead of escaping, he decided to stay put, face a death sentence, and commit suicide.
I cannot endorse Socrates’ final decision as an expression of the good life, but maybe Socrates was already too old and too tired at that time. Maybe he was already terminally ill and did not consider it worth it to go into exile.
Socrates’ insights about the good life are worth considering, but they should be compared to Socrates’ own decisions. To do the correct thing in life, we need compelling examples, not just general advice. We need to see individuals do as they say, and prove that their decision was beneficial and worth imitating.
If you are interested in applying rational ideas in all sorts of situations, I recommend my book “Rational Living, Rational Working.”