Philosophy Is A Way Of Life:
Modern man is inclined to think of mind, or the "thought process," as an
abstraction. Socrates thought mind was a very real thing. He also thought the
meaning of things was more real than the actual object in which the meaning
was contained because it alone was not subject to change and decay. For
example, he thought the idea of man more real than any living man. For this
reason, the world of things was a better or worse world in proportion to how
close it came to fulfilling its own meaning. In his view, for instance, man
becomes good (i.e., the best sort of human being) by trying to fulfill in
himself what it means to be a man. Socrates did not think of philosophy,
therefore, as a system of logical and abstract statements. Philosophy was not
concerned with mere propositions. Philosophy meant a life by which a man
actually became his own meaning (i.e., reached self-fulfillment) insofar as it
was humanly possible.
