Abai and Socrates assonance of spiritual world

G.A. Muratova,

Senior lecturer, PhD

Chair of Kazakh language

 practice of the humanities,

Eurasian National University

named after L.N. Gumilyov,

Astana

 

The outstanding person of ancient Greek philosophy Socrates was illustrated several times in Abai’s discourse. Abai, in his 17th and 27th Karasoz (instructive poems) and in soothing poem after his son Abdrakhman’s death uses his words as support for his thoughts and conclusion to his concepts. We can also notice Socrates’ influence in the manner Karasoz was written and in the way Abai tried to find the truth. The usage of Socrates name in Abai’s linguistic personal discourse is connected with the following motives, like:

·        Was Abai acquainted with the Socrates’ ideas? Does there exist any Socrates’ influence in Abai’s works?

·        How is Abai and Socrates interrelation seen in the linguistic cognitive level of Abai’s discourse?

In order to solve the statements mentioned above we have to deal with the following   questions: what is Socrates’ influence degree on Abai’s Karasoz writing style? Does there exist any assonance of spiritual life between Abai’s Karasoz and Socrates’ dialogue? Are there any common thoughts in Abai’s poems and Socrates’ ideas?

According to the assonance of thoughts we can look through such matters as: a) introspection; b) the essence of education; c) conceptual analysis on degree of common ideas to other matters.

Was Abai acquainted with Socrates’ biography?

Socrates’ name was mentioned in Abai’s 37th Karasoz. After learning the decision of the Court which made Socrates commit poisoning to himself, he exclaimed: who made Socrates poison himself, burnt out Iona Arc, executed Gaisa, buried the Christ into the camel’s meal? It was the majority of people, thus there is no wisdom in majority. Find a way and make a profit. (37th Karasoz). What was Abai’s basis to consider it in such a way? Socrates was executed by the Court verdict, not the court of conscience, but he was a victim of the fighting group. Socrates’ death proved that the person could be sentenced to death because of his high spiritual sincere thinking and on the way of protecting these exactly ideas. We can get the whole information about this in Platoon’s work “Socrates’ apology”. (1, 623) Philosopher and scientist A.F.Lossev speculated in his research work “Socrates’ social-political idea. Socrates’ personality” in the following way: “Socrates discovered new century of history of antique philosophy. He finds human life and intellectuality as the basis of philosophy. Wisdom is an invaluable characteristic of a person. Knowledge is a sense which is closely connected with human inner spiritual world. The source of knowledge is in person’s actions”. Socrates’ such ideas caused misunderstanding of majority at that time which sentenced him to death as if he had influenced to the youth in negative way and was against the social structure, religious concepts of those times. We can notice this and other information from Socrates’ life in the meaning and plot of Abai’s poems, Karasoz.

The assonance of ideas of Abai’s Karasoz and Socrates’ dialogue. 27th Karasoz. The content of Abai’s this Karasoz was similar to Socrates and Hippias discussion. In ancient Greece in the west part of Peloponnesus in the place called Elide was born a famous sophist Hippias, Plato showed this dialogue of “Hippias the Greatest” in the second part of his works. (389-387 y.). Having been continuing Socrates’ idea and expressing his deep thoughts and skills, Plato became a master of dialect thinking. Here ideas are the legal continuation of deep thoughts in previous Ion’s dialogue (1, 522). During the acquaintance with such a dialogue of West thinker we can perceive the level of accordance with the ideas of Kazakh society. In Abai’s 27th Karasoz there was made high point of wise man Socrates and his pupil Aristodem dialogue. Examining carefully we can see that it has something common with Platoon’s dialogue “Hippias the Greatest”. Comparing two dialogues we can see the unity of common outlook and thinking.

Knowledge in Abai and Socrates understanding.            

The accordance of Abai and Socrates outlook should concern the analysis of knowledge and education. “Socrates thinks that the source of knowledge is in human himself, in his actions… Knowledge is closely connected with the principle of mercy. While trying to do good things freely and learning the basis of the knowledge everybody should avoid the evil. Socrates’ such viewpoint impressed the thinkers and activists of his time” (2, 69). Well-known philosophers A.Nysanbayev and T.Abzhanov found the common ideas in Socrates words written above and Abai’s this poem:

For one who reached a science/ Others are alien, (3,311)

Narrow-minded person will never be higher than science (3,312);

       If whispers and gossips are away, then science, art, wealth will be goodness for people (3,316).  

Italicized words denote lexemes semantically potential person’ - Socrates’ prolific idea as “knowledge is not only equipment, but also the lifestyle of a human; it should take the beginning from his definite actions and activity and transfer to the sense of his life” (1,7). There exist valuable analysis which lead to cognitive perception of the world in Abai’s context: 1) If it comes from person’s sincere feeling “science is not obstacle”; 2) Even if narrow-minded person tries he can never surpass the scientist who is lead by intellectuality and nobleness; 3) Science and art – the way of “making good for people”, improving knowledge in right direction, achieving wisdom.

 Introspection of a person.

Socrates directed his attention to unfinished sophists’ theory about a human… in his opinion the basis of cognition and philosophy should be a human. The founder of sophism Protagoras’s theory “A human is measurement of all things in the world” is deepened saying that in order to know the world, the human is better to introspect himself first. Socrates’ primary principle “Firstly “recognize yourself” does not limit the basis of philosophy with human’s life only, he accepted life as intellectual personality. The following Socrates’ idea is “As much person deepens in himself so much he finds shortages of his spiritual development”, so thinker Abai showed similar critical point of view:

Falling in deep thinking/ I hold my sense.

I analyzed my character/ I decided to check…

Having tested my knowledge/ it’s not bigger than stone of the rock.

Having searched my heart/ no more pure than a needle.                      

Saying that he found the answer in the following:

I was so fool/ I was attracted by everything

Pure heart/ its justice was poisoned.

So wisdom and knowledge/ were completely forgotten (309). Abai looked closely into himself and “his spiritual world”. In this matter we can also make example from Socrates’ thoughts “Human should investigate his spiritual world from different sides”. In Abai’s discourse such pragmaticons (the signs of   investigating actions) as looking after yourself, thinking deeply, analyzing personality, listening to the heart, turning back to the past determines the accordance of two thinkers’ speculations.

If we say that the essence of mind, which became the subject of philosophy, is closely connected with researching the human’s internal and spiritual world, the conclusion which comes from Abai’s researches, i.e. when a person understands the importance of analyzing his personality it shows the reasons of shortage of his knowledge.    

According to context “making way for deceit and false” which we can understand meaning of all of this is renunciation from wisdom and knowledge. Abai, in our opinion, wanted to express this thought “a person suffers from the shortage of wisdom and knowledge”. And Socrates’ thought is continued in “knowledge is closely connected with person’s spiritual world”, thus it proves Abai and Socrates views of spiritual world assonance.

The essence of “majority”.

Abai’s 37th Karasoz is analyzed according to the usage of Socrates’ name and direct meaning of the word “majority”. There Abai had imperative thoughts: “there is no wisdom in majority of people, find a way and make a profit”, didn’t he? There was used lexeme majority. In addition to its denotative meaning it has connotative description and metaphorical usage. Majority here means not exactly total population, but separate group of people in the society. Abai also seems to highlight “Don’t say that the majority is a lot, population is separate too, i.e. the majority which separated from the whole population is only little part of it”.

From these discourses we can make conclusion that recognizing a human and with the help of your own knowledge (by measurement of a person) we should differentiate majority’s knowledge (its knowledge ability). Don’t believe the majority until “your mind does not believe it”. Believing, having analyzed nothing is also narrow-minded and uneducated action. If many uneducated people gather their amount may increase. So they will be dangerous…

By the phrase “Majority has no wisdom” author constituted “Wise man Socrates was a victim of majority’s narrow-mindness”. We should be careful with the majority which does not distinguish the difference between a wise man and wisdom!”

Finally, in great poet Abai’s creativity we can witness his thoughts about human being and their assonance with great ancient thinkers like Socrates. 

 

Literature

 

1.                     Plato, Compositions in three books, Volume I, Editorial of A.F. Lossev, V.F. Asmus, trans. from Ancient Greek, Moscow, “Thought”, 1968, - 623 p. 

2.                     Nysanbayev A., Abzhanov T. «If to research a human». Study book. – Almaty, 1992. -160 p.

3.                     Two volume collection of Abai Kunanbayev’s creative works. I Volume. – Àlmaty; “Science”, 1977 -454 p.

4.                     Aimauytov Zh. Five Volume collection of creative works. - Almaty: “Science”, 1999. - 304 p.

5.                     Auezov Ì. The questions of Abai studies. -20 òîì. – Almaty: “Writer”, 1985. -496 p.

6.                     Babenko L.G., Kazarin U.V. Linguistic analysis of literary text. Ì., 2003. – 463 p.

7.                     Baitursynov A. Pure Way: Poems and translations. Published articles and literary researches. – Almaty: “Flame”, 1994. -464 p.