Change the World Much?

So here's a cool little story from antiquity that's packed with lessons.  

The Death of Socrates

Socrates mentors this guy named Plato in philosophy and really, if we're being honest, teaches him how to think and live.  (Socrates, if you'll recall, had such a strong tie between his thought and his actions that he was willing to die for them).  This had a profound effect on his disciple Plato.

The School of Athens (detail) with the elder Plato on the left and his brilliant disciple Aristotle on the right.

 Plato in turn started a school in Athens for philosophers.  One of his disciples was this brilliant man named Aristotle.  Aristotle was, of course, a great thinker in his own right-even taking issue with some of what his mentor taught him and launching into an entirely new "school of thought" if you will.  

Between the three of these guys, you have the foundations of much of Western thought, and there are many assumptions that all of us hold today simply because of their influence.  

The reason their thought patterns spread so far and wide was because Alexander the Great conquered much of the known Western (and a lot of the Eastern) world at the time.  Throughout his empire, he spread the Greek-thought of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle (helped in part by the fact that he established a common "Koine" Greek language to facilitate trade and learning, and because he founded learning centers like the city of Alexandria, famous for its Great Library).  More than a general, Alexander the Great was a phenomenal statesman who understood how to transform the cultures of the societies he conquered.  

The product of over a century of thought-development taking action-Alexander the Great.

One of the reasons why Alexander was able to accomplish so much was because his mind was so well developed.  He simply outsmarted other generals in battle, and knew what factors most influenced a whole society.  History records how Alexander knew so much by telling us who his mentor was-none other than Aristotle himself!  

So there you have it... an unbroken line of mentors from Socrates to Plato to Aristotle to Alexander the Great.  Socrates died in 399 B.C., long before Alexander was born.  Plato too, was dead before Alexander turned 6.  But Aristotle lived to see his ideas, and the ideas of his forbears, spread further than he could have ever possibly dreamed through the actions of Alexander.  

There are tons of lessons in here (too many for a short post) but I at least want to mention how valuable even one life is... each of these men, by mentoring just one person, ensured that the entire world for thousands of years to come would be changed.  I think it goes to say that we should each live as if countless millions are depending on us to do the best with what we've been given.  It's not a guarantee that we'll have such influence, but without ever knowing (as Socrates and Plato never could have), I'd rather err on the side of going after great influence and change as opposed to passively living and dying without thought of who is to come after me.