What we are exploring: What is the connection between materialism and loss of ability to think?
What's new: Reasons for self-deception among followers of materialism?
What we will learn: How important is it to know what life is like?
1. He [Socrates, ed. author] was the first to talk about lifestyle... And he adhered to [...] a healthy lifestyle... He used to say that he eats to live, and other people live to eat (Diogenes Laertius. 1986) [1].
2. Live to eat. According to the teaching attributed to the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, there are only two ways to live a lifestyle: One way to live a lifestyle, which we have already discussed in previous chapters, is when people "live to eat" or live to consume (fr. 12.7). If you imagine life in the form of money, then such people do everything possible to spend it, instead of putting it into circulation and increasing it. Therefore, it is not surprising that the very manifestation of an extraordinary miracle called life remains unclaimed by people. After all, life itself, which is an incomparable gift, has no value for him, and therefore spends his entire life only on consumption. He takes the presence of life within himself as a matter of course. Only when a person risks losing his life due to diseases caused by a materialistic attitude to life, and the presence of wealth does not save him, can he for the first time (or maybe not) rethink his way of life. In this case, there is an opportunity to "devote the time and energy of love to acquiring new knowledge and positive experience (those important actions and events that can bring him true satisfaction)" (Kasser T. 2015) [2].
3. Eat to live. This new knowledge can become a second way to lead one's lifestyle - to eat or consume to live (fr. 7. 18). In other words, use food or any other method of consumption to increase the capital of life - your health. But there is a huge gap between the two ways of living. According to the teachings of Socrates, how a person relates to life and, accordingly, what kind of life he leads, depends on the person's knowledge of the source of life (Xenophon. 1993) [3].
4. Source of life. Xenophon * described the dialogue between the philosopher Socrates and his interlocutor Aristodemus. The dialogue shows the connection between the way of life and knowledge about the source of life - fortuitousness or the Creator. Judging by the dialogue, Aristodemus, as a citizen of Ancient Greece, was a well-mannered and educated person. He was well versed in various types of art, poetry, dithyrambs**, tragedy in the theater, sculpture, and painting. He admired famous people in these arts. He imagined himself to be a very smart # and all-knowing person. This, according to Aristodemus, gave him the right to consider the existence of only those things that could be seen. He did not see the soul, mind, or "gods", therefore, they cannot be perceived by the senses (eyes, ears, hands, etc.) and therefore ignored everything that cannot be perceived physically. Aristodemus considered the wise and orderly arrangement of the Universe, the world around him, and his body to be a matter of chance, in which all its parts were usefully arranged according to their intended purpose. Having this way of thinking, it is not surprising that Aristodemus accepted chance as the source of life (ibid.).
* Xenophon (Greek: Xenophon) Athenian, b. 430-425 century. Athens, died after 355 BC. e. in Corinth, historian and writer; a student of Socrates who did not show deep interest in philosophy [1].
** Dithyramb - a song in honor of Dionysus, or Bacchus, the god of wine, accompanied by a mimic dance (ibid.).
# Some ancient Greek materialist philosophers (Anaxagoras, Archelaus, Euripides) deified reason and considered it the root cause of movement that established order over matter in the Universe. Others, Leucippus and Democritus, thought that movement arose from a disordered vortex that randomly established order in the matter of the Universe, which somehow gave birth to intelligence. In all likelihood, Aristodemus adhered to the teachings of Leucippus and Democritus [1, 4, 5].
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