The Socratic Mind and the Civic Task of Philosophy: Gadflies in the Public Space

Speaker: Dr. Ramin Jahanbegloo Associate Professor Noor-York Chair in Islamic Studies York University Toronto-Canada

 

Chair: Dr. Ashis Nandy

 

The historical figure of Socrates as a philosopher-citizen, who stood at odds with the Athenian polis, represents today a valid and relevant nucleus for the ongoing pursuit of dissentful thinking and philosophical interrogation in our world. In a world where philosophical interrogation has given its place to complacency, conformism, intellectual degradation and erosion of values, Socrates is more relevant than at any other time. The lecture suggests that the radical, disobedient and nonviolent Socrates has been in a historical link and affinity with Socrates as a citizen-philosopher. It remains to explain how these two complementary characteristics were transmitted to and underlined by nonviolent reformers and practitioners such as Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. These thinkers and practitioners of nonviolence laid the foundations for a world where the Socratic philosophy of revolt, against injustice and tyranny, but also in opposition to complacency and conformism, finds its moral and political foundations while remaining an inspiration for the present day gadflies who rightly struggle against the inequalities and injustices and try to break the wall of indifference