Guard Your Soul (Protagoras 309a-314e)

"You cannot know to whom you are entrusting your soul,—whether it is to something good or to something evil."

When Socrates hears that Hippocrates is desiring to go see the Sophist, Protagoras, who has just arrived in town, Socrates is shocked that he would so willingly pay a sum of money just to go see him, unsure of what he will actually be gaining. Socrates establishes that if Hippocrates were to pay a sculptor or a painter, he would want to be taught the profession of painting and sculpting. Likewise, if he is paying a Sophist, he must therefore want to become a Sophist as well. Unable to describe what it is exactly that he wishes to gain from Sophistry, Hippocrates concedes to Socrates that what he is really wanting is education, not learning the profession, because he does not want to become a Sophist himself - in fact, Hippocrates says he would be ashamed to be a Sophist. Socrates then establishes that a part of education is indoctrination - at least when dealing with Sophistry - and that he is surprised Hippocrates would pay to be indoctrinated with an unknown doctrine by going to visit Protagoras.

In this excerpt, Socrates recognizes something that we often fail to recognize in this day and age: the sacredness - and malleability - of the human soul. He states that Hippocrates cannot just carry away what the Sophist gives him in his arms - no, he must carry it in his soul. Forever (314a). As consumers, we often fail to recognize that some of the things we purchase and take part in will not just alter our life through the function of the object, but will actually change us. We don't notice that the sort of music we choose to listen to, the lyrics we hum under our breath, the movies we watch, the things we read, the things our ears listen to, the arguments we buy, the things we allow our soul to become aware of are all slowly changing the very essence of who we are. Our generation is young, wild, and free of all repercussions regarding our rumspringa actions....so we think.

Growing up in the Church, we always heard statistics regarding youth who essentially fell off the Church grid during and after college. Our youth pastors all pleaded with us to be careful that we not "lose our faith" too. I think this "loss of faith" (disregarding a discussion of whether one can actually "lose their faith") is due to the fact that the new age is filled with the exhortation to be more open-minded. If you don't want to listen to someone else's point of view or opinion on how the world is or how it should be, then you are labeled as a closed-minded bigot. Because of this, more and more young people are opening their souls to doctrines that cannot help but change it. Strangely enough, I think Socrates would be on the God's side this time (haha). I don't think Socrates is advocating for closed-mindedness, necessarily, but I think he is cautioning one to take much care with what they allow their soul to be privy too. You can think critically about your faith (or whatever the belief/mindset in question is), and that's a good thing, but don't go listen to random, unknown doctrines when you don't want their effects on your soul. After all,

"You cannot know to whom you are entrusting your soul,—whether it is to something good or to something evil."