SOCRATES
Philosophical Quotes
“An unexamined life is not worth living.”
“Wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth.”
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing”
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
He is often called as the ‘first philosopher’, not in the sense that he came first, but in the sense that he is top of the pile. He taught to his disciples “the art of questioning” and it was in this context, he said that an unexamined life was not worth living.
EXAMPLE
Dr. Narendra Dabholkar was an Indian rationalist and anti-superstition activist who was murdered in Pune in August 2013 for his work promoting rationality and challenging harmful superstitions. His death is widely considered a “fascist attack on rationalism”.
Dabholkar dedicated his life to combating superstition and promoting scientific thinking, particularly in Maharashtra. He founded the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti (MANS), an organization focused on eradicating superstition and advocating for an anti-superstition law. His work often involved challenging self-proclaimed godmen, debunking miracles, and promoting social reform.
Dabholkar’s efforts to enact an “anti-superstition/anti-black magic bill” in Maharashtra made him a target of those who opposed his rationalist ideology and the potential erosion of their power based on superstition. His murder, carried out by two assailants on August 20, 2013, while he was on a morning walk, sparked widespread condemnation and calls for justice.
Socratic in the Age of Algorithms:
Socrates claimed that Virtue is Knowledge, and that wrongdoing stems from ignorance. Today, we see this playing out perfectly in the tech industry with algorithmic bias.
ART OF QUESTIONING IN 2026
The three boys question CBSE
A massive national controversy erupted in India when three Gen-Z teenagers exposed severe flaws, security vulnerabilities, and procurement irregularities in the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) newly implemented On-Screen Marking (OSM) system.
Vedant Shrivastava (The Whistle-blower)
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- What he exposed:After receiving unexpectedly low marks in his Class 12 Physics exam, Vedant applied for a scanned copy of his answer sheet through the official re-evaluation process. When he opened the document, he realized the handwriting on the paper did not belong to him.
- The Impact:He posted the evidence on X where it garnered over 2.5 million views. His viral post exposed an alarming mix-up in CBSE’s digitized paper distribution, validating thousands of other students who suspected evaluation errors. CBSE later admitted the mistake and corrected his sheet.
Sarthak Sidhant (The Policy & Tender Analyst)
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- What he exposed:Rather than focusing only on individual marks, the 17-year-old dug into the backend system. He pored over public procurement documents on the Central Public Procurement portal and exposed at least 15 major discrepancies in the tendering process for the OSM system.
- The Impact: Sidhant’s detailed blog breakdown was so comprehensive that he was invited to present his findings directly to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education.
Nisarga Adhikary (The Ethical Hacker)
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- What he exposed:The 19-year-old cybersecurity researcher looked into the cloud infrastructure hosting the scanned answer sheets. He discovered massive security flaws and exposed pathways in the OSM portal.
PYQs:
2020: “A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.” — Socrates
2019: “An unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates
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