Purpose and objectives

A few millenniums ago a person asked the famous Oracle of Delphi who was the wisest person in Athens, the answer was Socrates. That person was shocked, after all Socrates was a humble man, a stone carver. He wondered why Socrates was chosen among all the famous learned philosophers, the eminent doctors and the silver tongued lawyers. That person, stumped for answers went out and told Socrates the news.

It happened that Socrates too was stunned. Being Socrates, he went out and tried to find out if he is indeed wise. And he did this by waylaying the learned of Athens and asked them simple questions about life, about the nature of truth, of beauty and morality.

What he found was intriguing. These learned people thought they knew, indeed they told Socrates quite a mouthful. But their words, Socrates realized were just that, simple assertions. They thought that they know about virtue, about the good and about morality. Sure, Socrates did not know too but he did not presume to know what he did not.

That was the difference. And so started his journey. Starting from a position of doubt we can move onto a synthesis, a general agreement and a progression towards truth. This is the Socratic journey. The journey seeking truth.

I am embarking on this journey. A 2^nd year medical student trying to get to grips with the illness of a loved family member and trying to find out who exactly I am… to find my own place in this world.

My journey will be deeply personal, I will try and express all my suppressed emotions, my goals, my challenges and my failures.

It will be partly historical. After all, a large part of who I am now has to do a lot with my upbringing.

I imagine this to be the most difficult. Being a really private person, I do not have many intimate friends to share my “darkest secrets”. I seem to be unwilling to be able to trust another person to be non-judgemental. Perhaps I am too self conscious. Perhaps I am lacking a sort of personal self confidence - irrespective of other people's opinions.

It will be self expression of my ideas. After all my philosophy on life reflect greatly on what sort of person I am. Also, being an intellectual person who is more concerned with the abstract rather than details. So naturally, I do not often find a venue to express my thoughts (its rather rude to discuss politics, economics, morality over lunch!). This blog would be a venue for me to express clearly and logically my thoughts on paper.

Like Socrates, I will start from a position of ignorance. Of doubt and confusion. But steadily, through a dialogue with you the reader, my friends and myself. Hopefully we will move on and find the truth.

So.... onwards!!!