Greek philosopher Socrates' birthday has been declared as International Philosophy Day by the United Nations, to be observed on the third Thursday of November.
Though the whole of western philosophy owes a great deal in terms of its problems and its method to Socrates, little else is known of the historical details. In Plato's dialogues Socrates emerges primarily as a character interested in the search for wisdom. For him all other concerns of life like wealth, luxury and power are subordinate to the quest for knowledge.
From Greek historian Xenophon's accounts we know that Socrates's father Sophroniscus was a mason and his mother Phaenerate was a midwife. He served as a soldier in the Peloponnesian War. He was married to Xanithippe. He was the father of three male children. He was an ugly stout man of great endurance with no special education.
By relentlessly questioning the unwarranted confidence in the truth of popular opinions Socrates demonstrated through dialogue that the truth is contrary to them. We have to penetrate the appearances to arrive at reality. With the exception of the Epicureans who called him 'the Athenean buffoon' and disliked his philosophy everyone considers Socratic dialogical method as the paradigm of doing philosophy.
Socrates sought answers to questions like What is wisdom?, What is piety?, What is the right thing to do?, What is beauty? What is life? Why is it criminal to take someone's life? What is a number? What is space? What is time? What is morality? What is happiness? What ought to be the aim of human life? What is religion? Are all religions equal? Does God exist? Can we prove the existence of God? How to define art and beauty? Where does public domain begin and the private domain end? Why should i be moral? Why should the results in mathematics be more exact than in psychology? These and other questions which are the starting assumptions and are unexamined, form the subject matter of philosophy. Philosophy is a universally recognised academic discipline believed to be as old as the human race. In fact, philosophising distinguishes human beings from animals. The primary aim of philosophising is 'logical clarification of thoughts' and 'creative and constructive thinking'. It is concerned with the problems of our lived life and existence, taking into account the totality of experience.
The term philosophy has two components Fielo which means love and Sophia which means wisdom and knowledge. Following the Socratic tradition, knowledge for Greeks meant knowledge of all matters ranging from the most abstruse to the most practical. In this sense, therefore, all branches of study are within the scope of philosophy. That is why there is philosophy of science, mathematics, mind, social sciences and of all art forms.
No philosophical argument ends with a QED ('that which was to be demonstrated'). However forceful, it never forces one to concede to it. There is no bullying in philosophy, neither with the stick of logic nor with the stick of language. Nor can testimony ^ whether verbal or scriptural ^ or authority ^ whether of Vedas, Bible or a public figure ^ can be regarded as the final or the absolute criterion of settling disputes or for drawing final conclusions in philosophy. Philosophy can be said to be the only branch of knowledge or human intellectual enterprise in which no answer, however comprehensive it may claim to be, is left unquestioned. In a philosophical debate answers can be wrong or incomplete but no question is wrong, or not worth serious consideration for attempting an answer. In his last conversation Socrates argued that the wise man will regard approaching death with a cheerful confidence.
Today is International Philosophy Day.