How We Can All Be More Like Socrates
Critical Race Theory. The efficacy of masks and vaccines. The security and fairness of the recent election.
What do these issues all have in common? They all share that many Americans have views about these issues that are not tied to sound evidence. Another thing they all share is that many Americans don't trust the experts in these fields. This may be part of a larger trend, as Tom Nichols argues in The Death of Expertise. These are real problems in American public discourse and political life.
What can we do about it?
We can stay within our own information silo and castigate those who don't share our views. For many, this is the current status quo. But this is not a good option if we care about the truth and the common good. A better response to this is to look at representative arguments on the different sides of these and other issues and then present evidence for what we believe is true. If we are so inclined, we might even seek to persuade others in light of that evidence.
A better, and more fundamentally appropriate response, is to follow the lead of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates in his quest for wisdom and knowledge. What lessons can we learn from him and apply to our lives?
First, we should try to know what we don't know. After trying to persuade a public figure in Athens that he was not as wise as he thought he was, Socrates said:
I withdrew and thought to myself: I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know (Apology 21d).
When Socrates does not know something, he admits it to himself and others. This is one aspect of wisdom. But too many of us think that we know things that we do not know. We let our current perspectives and beliefs determine what we believe. In some instances, this is good. For example, someone who is rightly convinced that all human beings are equal in basic dignity should guide their beliefs about other matters. It is true, right, and good.
But many of our beliefs aren't like this. We treat them as core convictions that we believe based on evidence. In fact, they are mere opinions grounded in some combination of bad evidence, emotion, desire, our social context, and our own predispositions to believe certain things given our background, personalities, and other beliefs.
One practical application of this is that when there is a consensus among the experts in some field on a particular issue, we should require powerful and compelling evidence from those experts who disagree before rejecting that consensus. It doesn't matter if someone who is an MD or a Ph.D. disagrees with the consensus. What matters is that they do so grounded in good, sound, compelling evidence. And in the cases where this is so, most of us who are not experts can't really assess the evidence anyway. So it is generally better to either accept the consensus or reject it to do so not as a deep conviction but as something more like a mere opinion. We should, in short, not think we know what we don't know. This would really improve our public discourse.
Second, approach the quest for truth with a humble attitude. This attitude is necessary for the wisdom of knowing what we don't know. We should seek to cultivate intellectual virtue in general, and especially intellectual humility (see Nathan King's wonderful book, The Excellent Mind, if you'd like to grow in this area of life). In intellectual humility, we realize that we can be wrong about many things. This doesn't mean that we don't have beliefs or knowledge and remain perpetually agnostic or skeptical about everything. Instead, it means that we realize we're fallible, we can be mistaken, many things can cloud our judgments about truth. We acknowledge our limits. Such humility also requires intellectual courage to admit that we are wrong and allow others to correct us.
Third, seek truth with others. The quest for knowledge and wisdom is a communal quest, not an individual one. The others we seek the truth with should not just be members of our political, social, or religious tribe. We should draw from a variety of sources across the ideological spectrum on whatever issue we are exploring. We should approach the search for truth with others, not in a face-to-face manner, in opposition to one another. Rather, we should stand side-by-side, so to speak, searching for the truth together. It is a mutual quest for understanding, not a zero-sum game debate.
What is the upshot of all of this for us?
Know your limits, and live in light of them. Be willing to admit what you don't know. Be willing to admit when you are wrong. In short, seek to be humble and courageous. Do your best to impartially and passionately seek out the truth with others. Then, apply it to your life in wise and helpful ways.
This is the way of Socrates. We should follow his example.