On the American Public Media program, Speaking of Faith, historian Jennifer Michael Hecht was interviewed about her book, Doubt, a History.
Thoughts of doubt began in the 3rd and 4th century B.C.E. with the philosophers of Ancient Greece like Socrates. In these times doubt was looked upon with some sense of dignity, some respect. Yet in today’s times, it is looked down upon heavily for some reason. Perhaps because now doubt is related to the altogether denial of faith, as opposed to the earlier times when it was considered simply the decision that questioning was the right thing for the doubter. Today, we look at doubt as something that ultimately has a disastrous or ironic ending. Yet, once again, in the olden times, doubt was supposed to have a happy ending and a comic rebirth. Doubt is what ultimately blossomed into the Renaissance and played a major role in many scientific and religious rebirths. So why is doubt so looked down upon in today’s standards? Why has it become something that has been shunned from our history? Many periods of our history have been praised and celebrated throughout the years. But some of the most important periods are overlooked. The periods of doubt, the periods of questioning, have eventually led to some of our most influential and important time periods. As mentioned prior, doubt was eventually what led us to the Renaissance. It is actually quite interesting how doubt was spread throughout the world. Typically something is spread by popularity and word of mouth. Yet doubt, ironically, was spread in a more ominous fashion. It began in Europe and there was a certain point where the leaders said enough is enough and closed down the schools of philosophy and exiled the philosophers and thinkers and doubters. These people and ideas went to the Islamic world, where their influence became heavy on the people living there. The thinkers continued to move across the area until they were settled back in Europe once again, where they could reestablish their influence in the land, and work towards the Renaissance.
Socrates was all about questioning what we cannot know. He was a skeptic. Skepticism has taken quite the opposite role of doubt throughout history. It began as basically the denial of everything and now has blossomed into the study of probabilities. For Socrates, there were 3 main fears, fear of pain, fear of gods, and fear of death. He had a way of basically negating all of these 3 fears.
Fear of pain could be negated by realizing that the fear of pain is actually worse than the pain itself. So the pain is basically not an issue whatsoever in Socrate’s mind.
The Fear of gods could easily be summed up by Socrates with the simple idea that there are no gods.
Finally the fear of death could be negated by saying that there is no way to mourn your death because you are not alive any longer.
Diogenes once went up to Alexander the Great. He asked him what his plans are. Alexander responded by telling Diogenes that he was to conquer Greece. Diogenes pursued further with a simple “and then what?” Alexander simply said “I will conquer Asia Minor.” Diogenes prodded even further with the same question and Alexander told the great wise man that he was going to conquer the world. Yet that was not enough for Diogenes, who responded, “then what?” Alexander, feeling confident, beastly stated that he was going to relax and sit back. Diogenes cleverly suggested, “Why not save yourself all the trouble and relax now.”
