LIVE THE BEST OF LIFE 

Nobody is born into this world with a pre-written instruction manual on how to live their best life, as Muslims, we may not be able to understand Al Quran during infancy. Our parents are supposed to have the knowledge of how to tread the journey of life in this temporal world.  Maybe, for most of us, all we can do is try to figure it out. And, whether we like it or not, that makes us students of the human condition.

As I grow older, my own experiences and observations of people who’re older than me have taught me that life is just a series of chapters. When you hit a new phase; 20, 30, 40, or 50 years, many things change — your body, mind, dreams, and expectations. Sometimes, you look back and think, “If only I knew then what I know now…”

The truth is you can only see the past with painful clarity once you’ve lived it or the best of remembrance on events from yesteryears. Those experiences become a trove of resources to help you navigate your next phase.

The problem is most people never really get that memo, I mean that experiences that may be valuable to guide their future life journey. 

Regardless, certain lessons about life are universal, and some are so special only for you. They apply at every stage, whether you’re 18 or 65, and knowing about them can make a big impact on your life.

Walk your own path

Everyone around you wants to mold you into something, from your parents, relatives, to your teachers.

It can feel as if they have your best interest at heart. Maybe they do.

But if you listen to everyone who wants you to be something they want, you’ll wind up being someone you don’t want. You don’t want to become a copy of someone else. You want to be your own original.

Your most important assignment is to figure out who you want to be and what path you want to follow.

Finding that path and sticking to it, against the expectations of society, is an act of courage.

Remember this: Other people’s dreams should never stop you from pursuing your own unique future.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nowadays modern sophists - arguers with the cocky talk.

 

Devil’s advocate — Rise of the modern Sophist!

Sophism is dead! Long live Sophism!!

The original Sophists may have lived in 5th century BCE but it will be a great mistake to suppose that Sophism is dead. On the contrary, today, the popular modern culture reeks with the ideas of the Sophists, more than ever.

In 5th century Greek-speaking world, particularly at Athens, Sophists were travelling intellectuals who taught ‘Arête’ (excellence or virtue) to anyone who could pay the right fee. They were not a school of philosophers and they did not invent or follow any system of philosophy but they excelled in the art of logical argument: ‘Dialectic’ and the art of persuasive speaking : ‘Rhetoric’.

The Sophists were splendid orators, public speakers and mouths for hire!

Completely ignorant of any morality or ethics, these charismatic men dazzled everyone with their clever reasoning but usually fallacious arguments. They earned reputations as the crowd pullers who could convince anyone that good could be bad or vice versa or even that day was night!

The famous case of ‘Corax and Tisias’ …

Corax, a teacher of Rhetoric in Syracuse, Sicily around 476 BCE sued his pupil, Tisias, for not paying his tuition.

In court, Tisias argued that he should not have to pay, regardless of the outcome, because:

Either he will prove his case, and therefore not have to pay as the result of winning the suit, or he will lose the suit and that will be proof that Corax did not teach him well enough to deserve being paid his tuition.

Corax argued that he should be paid, regardless of the outcome, because:

If he wins the suit, then the court will require him to be paid, and if he loses the suit, that will be proof that he taught Tisias well enough to beat him and therefore he deserves to be paid his fee.

Who is right?

The judge shook his head in disdain and ruled, “Mali corvi, mali ovum.” — One bad thing (the bad crow, malus corvus) can only give rise to something else bad (the bad egg, malum ovum).

Eventually, their attitude, coupled with the unscrupulous pursuit of wealth, led to popular resentment against sophists and their ideas. With the rise of the philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, they slowly sank into oblivion and faded away.

1st century CE witnessed a very short-lived resurgence of Sophism known as the ‘Second Sophistic’.

And so it was presumed that Sophism died an unceremonious death after that. But to everyone’s astonishment, fed by capitalist society and market-driven higher education, Sophistry has risen like a phoenix from the ashes.

As described in a Financial Times article by Janan Ganesh, the elite professions in modern society - lawyers and management consultants, political advisers and advertising executives, public-relations strategists, and even certain types of investment bankers: all trade on the same skill of Sophistry!

In today’s society, lawyers are the true modern Sophists — arguers for hire. And the court is their battleground where they try to outshine each other in a dazzling show of Sophistry! An attorney is even legally obligated to argue as persuasively as they can for their client’s best interests, irrespective of his or her innocence!