Socrates

This article is about GritCult's view of Socrates. For a general overview, see Socrates on Wikipedia.

Socrates appears in 31 posts from 2018 to 2023. GritCult values him for method more than doctrine: the question as a tool that pulls other people into the questioner's frame. He also admires the death, chosen over silence, and the Socratic indifference to possessions, and he treats Twitter itself as a Socratic academy.

Views

The Socratic method is the heart of it. In a 2020 thread on asking better questions he reduced philosophy to its origins: Socrates 'would be just chilling with his bros asking questions n wrestling them', and a question 'FORCES a person to fall into YOUR frame' ^[1]. 'A question is a tool', he wrote in the same exchange, and 'the best way to teach is to ask questions' ^[2]. The comparison he reached for was Joe Rogan, whom he also called a modern day Socrates, which says as much about what GritCult thinks philosophy should look like as about Rogan. What he wants from the method is persuasion more than refutation.

He treats the trial as the model of integrity. Socrates questioned everything and everyone, and when told to stop or die, 'He chose death as he would have gladly died in pursuit of truth' ^[3]. The Athenians who condemned him become, in a 2018 post, the original NPCs: 'the forgotten dead who called for the death of socrates were also NPC s' ^[4]. The same year he drew the contrast with Aristotle, who fled a similar trial and so, in GritCult's view, lacked skin in the game. The other Socratic inheritance is wanting little: 'Those who want the fewest things are nearest to the gods' ^[5] is his most-retweeted Socrates quote card.

Socrates also gives the timeline a pedigree. In 2018 he mapped the internet onto antiquity, with 'Twitter : Socratic Academies. (Dialectical Learning)' ^[6], and in a joke he reposted in 2021 he claimed to post depressing facts so that readers would reach new insights 'via your own socratic dialogue' ^[7]. By 2022 the ancients were simply 'the original shitposters', men who 'didn't read any books' but talked, strolled, wrestled and debated ^[8].

Recurring themes

• the question as a tool of persuasion
• philosophy as conversation and wrestling
• dying for the truth
• wanting less
• Twitter as a Socratic academy

Notable post

The most retweeted GritCult post on the subject, with 19 retweets:

Selected posts

All 31 posts in the archive about Socrates, ranked by retweets. Select a column heading to sort.

Date	Retweets	Likes	Post	Media	Source
19 August 2018	19	118	broke : inspirational twitter woke : me posting depressing facts, stats and trends so you internalise a level of relative stoicism making you more antifragile in real life, thus benefiting from new insights you have come to through via your own socratic dialogue		View
18 November 2020	17	42	Those who want the fewest things are nearest to the gods. Socrates		View
7 March 2018	15	10	Socrates constantly questioned everything and usually everyone. Why is the way we are living the best way. How do we measure. Compared to what. For this they asked him to stop or death. He chose death as he would have gladly died in pursuit of truth.		View
28 December 2022	9	71	FALLING DOWN IS NOT A FAILURE. FAILURE COMES WHEN YOU STAY WHERE YOU HAVE FALLEN. - SOCRATES		View
11 August 2020	9	34	Socrates would be just chilling with his bros asking questions n wrestling them, thats all philosophy was designed to be, asking GOOD questions... like Joe Rogan. A question FORCES a person to fall into YOUR frame, int YOUR world.		View
11 May 2021	8	18	"WISDOM BEGINS IN WONDER." - SOCRATES		View
18 February 2022	7	25	I CANNOT TEACH ANYBODY ANYTHING, I CAN ONLY MAKE THEM THINK. - SOCRATES		View
14 June 2021	6	13	I KNOW NOTHING EXCEPT THE FACT OF MY IGNORANCE. SOCRATES		View
7 February 2018	6	0	At the time of Socrates, there was a group of professional rhetoricians called the Sophists, who performed language tricks for money. artists of good bad arguments. i need to practice debating more.		View
22 July 2021	5	61	broke : inspirational twitter woke : me posting depressing facts, stats and trends so you internalise a level of relative stoicism making you more antifragile in real life, thus benefiting from new insights you have come to through via your own socratic dialogue		View
7 October 2019	4	17	"for wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder." Socrates via Plato.		View
18 May 2018	3	22	Wikipedia : Library of Alexandria Youtube : Lecture Halls of Greats Twitter : Socratic Academies. (Dialectical Learning) PirateBay : Tools of creation me : fucking nerd, who loves the internet		View
20 October 2018	3	13	the NPC "meme" is a lot older than you may realise there has always been a notion of the blissful ignorant who are against truth, instead opting for their comforts. the forgotten dead who called for the death of socrates were also NPC s		View
29 July 2021	2	19	"WISDOM BEGINS IN WONDER." - SOCRATES		View
11 September 2018	2	5	“I will not allow the Athenians to sin twice against philosophy." -Aristotle and his lack of "skin in the game." he fled rather than face a sham trial of which like socrates, would be put to death. for expressing his ideas, thoughts and philosophy		View
3 May 2018	2	3	FREE THOUGHT AND INDEPENDENT CRITICAL THINKING IS DANGEROUS AND PEOPLE, EVEN THOSE WHO LOVED YOU, WILL HATE YOU FOR IT LAW 38 : - THINK AS YOU LIKE, BUT BEHAVE LIKE OTHERS THEY KILLED SOCRATES FOR CORRUPTING THE YOUTH NOW THEY TRYNA CRUCIFY 'YE(LOL)		View
12 June 2023	1	27	SOCRATES WAS ASKED, "WHY DO YOU NEVER SORROW?" HE REPLIED "BECAUSE I NEVER ACQUIRE ANYTHING WHOSE LOSS WOULD SADDEN ME."		View
16 August 2022	1	8	Socratic dialogue but its with twitter anons		View
15 July 2018	1	4	Socrates was told that some man had not been improved by travel. 'I am sure he was not,' he said. 'He went with himself!''		View
25 April 2018	1	3	the self-organized learning environment (SOLE) resulted in with the Internet, kids can learn by themselves, so long as they are in small groups and have well-posed questions to answer much like the socratic questioning method of teaching		View
4 May 2018	1	1	“Of becoming ‘misologic’,” Socrates said, “in the sense that people become misanthropic. No greater misfortune could happen to anyone than that to developing a dislike for argument. ‘Misology’ and misanthropy arise in just the same way.		View
30 January 2018	1	0	"The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less." Socrates, happiness doesn't come from external rewards or accolades. It comes from the private, internal success people bestow upon themselves.		View
11 August 2020	0	26	A question is a tool. You can shape words to mold your reality and you can shape questions to mold the realities of others. This is what the socratic method is all about... ASKING QUESTIONS. the best way to teach is to ask questions		View
17 October 2022	0	26	Plato or Socrates or Aristotle didn’t read any books. They just talked with people on long strolls. Vibed and wrestled. And debated with the bros at the Lyceum. They were the original shitposters.		View
15 May 2021	0	20	EVER HEAR OF THE SOCRATIC METHOD? Most of philosophy is based around this notion of asking questions and answering them. Most of human knowledge is surrounded by asking GOOD questions. questions are more important than "facts"		View
25 June 2020	0	7	@joerogan is essentially the modern day socrates, always exposing himself to new ways of thinking and talking to business leaders and thought leaders all around the world he is the voice of free speech.		View
9 February 2018	0	2	“Do as Socrates did, never replying to the question of where he was from with, ‘I am Athenian,’ or ‘I am from Corinth,’ but always, I am a citizen of the world" (Epictetus, Discourses I, 9.1) in terms of a subjective world view, it is a case of realigning your frame of reference		View
27 July 2018	0	1	@Suppose_Not on hate also i think when correcting someone, there are better methodologies of doing so the best may be a socratic line of questioning		View
23 May 2019	0	1	@HighArchmage I know. Fuck Socrates		View
31 December 2023	0	1	@fde_enthusiast7 good point re, socrates, would argue they had different polis' so more a form of patchwork federalism why is america the pinnacle of civilisation? uk and germany were both very inventive during their peaks imo		View
24 May 2018	0	0	@seunn99 rewriting what socrates died for... it wasnt motivated by power structure or dynamics existentialcomics is a communist, theyve lost the plot. democracy was seen as tyranny of the masses, it was just another form of governance one mans tyrant is anothers philosopher king		View

History

GritCult first posted about Socrates on 30 January 2018, and most recently on 31 December 2023. Across the archive the subject comes up 31 times, most often in 2018 (14 posts).

See also

The Philosophers portal

References

1. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (11 August 2020). Socrates would be just chilling with his bros asking questions n wrestling them ... A question FORCES a person to fall into YOUR frame. X.
2. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (11 August 2020). A question is a tool. ... the best way to teach is to ask questions. X.
3. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (7 March 2018). He chose death as he would have gladly died in pursuit of truth. X.
4. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (20 October 2018). the forgotten dead who called for the death of socrates were also NPC s. X.
5. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (18 November 2020). Those who want the fewest things are nearest to the gods. X.
6. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (18 May 2018). Twitter : Socratic Academies. (Dialectical Learning). X.
7. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (19 August 2018). benefiting from new insights you have come to through via your own socratic dialogue. X.
8. ^GRITCULT [@GRITCULT] (17 October 2022). didn't read any books ... They were the original shitposters. X.

External links

• Posts about Socrates by GRITCULT on X
• Socrates on Wikipedia