Socrates' 'Ethical Rationalism'

There is a doctrine entitled 'ethical rationalism' which originates with Socrates' statement that "no one errs willingly." Socrates explains that for example if a man wanted to harm another this could only occur in ignorance. No one errs or does evil willingly. This is the core of the doctrine of 'ethical rationalism'. One may in fact set out to hurt someone and in fact, inflict a great deal of suffering into the lives of one, a few, many or very many people. History is full of countless dramas like this! Evenso, it is a mistake, it is ignorance, as Socrates indicates, that leads to malice! Ignorance and ignorance alone.

Hence, it behooves us to do an inventory of our own lives and reckon whether we have done something or left something undone which in fact hurt someone deeply. Since all of the lives at once on earth seem to be intertwined in a unique historical manner we can imagine that it is possible that there might be someone out there who has been harmed by me, and I am not even aware of it, in fact, I may never ever be aware that I have caused someone pain. Yes, it certainly is possible that you can harm someone without even knowing that you are doing so. The point Socrates makes is that however you choose to mess up nature or hurt animals, or mislead people, in that same moment you are actually ignorant. Ironic? Perhaps.

Ironic, or logical? Is it not logical that I have often erred at first and then later realized that I was not as good on the guitar or whatever as I thought I was "back in the day"? But as I came to 'know' more and 'know better' how to do something that I realized that I was indeed ignorant and acted so, thus harming the balance, the harmony, the beauty and the feelings of nature. Though I may have cursed in the begining, eventually I realized that the real ballgame was staying mentally balanced, all the time. This is the key and the essence of authentic learning---later knowledge gives advanced hindsight. Be humble, go easy on yourself and others. One who errs by harming fellow human beings, errs in not grasping that the fundamental essence of truth is love and that god is nothing more or less than love. He or she fails to see that it is only in the act of loving and forgiving oneself that one became capable of mastering their particular "game" be it golf, or violin, or teaching. Hence, it follows that the only manner in which to actually become excellent at any discipline at all is to practice love.

The only game there is as Ram Dass wrote in his lovely book. Sure, you can play lesser games, 'headgames' for example, or become a master virtuoso on an instrument, but if your goal is to employ this virtuosity toward nefarious ends, for example, pride or vanity, the desire to control others or somehow become one of the 'cool people' is glamour which is a grand illusion, and a fundamental lie, since at root, reality is not 'glamorous'---everything is equally interdependent so as to be complete which the story of Indra's Net expresses so well. The universe itself is a jewel---so which jewel among all of the jewels is the best jewel? You see my point.

The only real game is love. To love truly and not in a selfish, me-first manner. To love truly---what can this mean? Oddly enough it means to 'let things be' what they are. Forgiveness, "Everytime I got it made, I let it rain on my parade, sings Peter Cetera. Yes, there will be rainy days. There will be sunny days too! 'Wu-wei' is the Taoist expression---doing nothing, or letting things be what they are, and even more, consciously allowing that things are as they have to be and simply are. "Is it raining?" "Yes!" "Shit!!" But look at that reaction---to swear is to lie, to think that things should be other than what they actually are, as with the rain and wetness. Which is why Jesus said, "do not swear---neither concerning the things on earth because that is the Lord's footstool, nor on heavenly things..." Matthew Chapter v: "Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.' 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply 'Yes,' or 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." Fascinating!

Do not mess things up any more than you are already going to have to do since you are a mere human being, but understand that the real ballgame is concerning love and all the other scorecards are puny and irrelevant. No 'prima donnas', no big dogs or important people---except in terms of the great ballgame which Jesus coached. He was sent to be a type of coach, the ultimate act of service. Do not make idols of anything, including the son of god, and the bible. Idolatry is idolatry, period.

At any rate let's take one look back at Socrates' 'ethical rationalism' and then wrap it up. There really is no point in kicking oneself because one fucked things up or failed to realize that things they were buying into were fucked (pardon the expletives). Hey that is the name of the game...it's called being finite. It is the essence of the human beings' confusion and shame. Jesus agrees with Socrates: no one does wrong willingly (knowingly), hence those who would act to harm act in ignorance and unknowing. If I really knew what was GOING ON in the universe, and I mean really grasped and understood the entire ballgame, I would "do unto others as they would have done unto them," I would forgive even my enemies, even as they are in the act of causing me pain. Next time: Things being what they are human beings must employ forgiveness, since the majority of people will always be causing harm based upon their ignorance. Once you see life through Jesus' eyes (i.e.love) you will se that everyone deserves to be forgiven "because they do not know what they are doing." ANd he spoke thusly of the men who were causing him very great and palpable pain at the exact moment he was forgiving them. Pretty cool.