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Socrates As the Paradigmatic Figure of Practical Philosophy

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Socrates As the Paradigmatic Figure of Practical Philosophy 50 Socrates as the ABSTRACT This philosophical essay aims to Paradigmatic return to the Socratic problem, ask it anew, and make an attempt to find its possible solution. In the introduction, Figure of the author briefly discusses to genesis of the Socratic problem and Practical the basic methodological problems we encounter when dealing with it. * Further on, it defines five basic sources Philosophy of information about Socrates on which the interpretation tradition is MATÚš PORUBJAK based. Then the author outlines two Department of Philosophy and Applied Philosophy key features of Socrates’ personality, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava aligned with the vast majority of Nám. J. Herdu 2 sources: (1) Socrates’ belief that he has Slovakia no theoretical knowledge; (2) Socrates’ [email protected] predilection towards practical questions, and the practical dimension of his activity. In conclusion, the author expresses his belief that it is just this practical dimension of philosophy that has been in the ‘blind spot’ of the modern study of Socrates which paid too much attention to the search for his doctrine. The history of philosophy, however, does not only have to be the history of doctrines, but can also be the history of reflected life practices which inspire followers in their own practices * This article was written under VEGA project No. 1/0864/18. I am thankful to Anna Pomichalova while reflecting on them. The author and Miroslav Pomichal for the translation of the therefore proposes to understand the first draft of this article. My special thanks go to anonymous reviewers and to Kryštof Boháček for historical Socrates as the paradigmatic many helpful comments and suggestions. figure of practical philosophy. INTERNATIONAL ISSUE NO. 5/2018 MATÚš PORUBJAK 51 SOCRatES as THE paRadIGmatIC FIGURE OF PRactIcaL phILOSOphY Socrates is one of the most iconic philosophical thinking remains hidden and at the same time most controver- in the works of those who wrote about sial figures of the history of philosophy him? In the 19th century this para- from the 18th century to the present day. dox resulted in the so-called Socratic On the one hand, he is the most iconic problem, first formulated by Friedrich figure because the modern tradition Schleiermacher, and later developed by accepted the influence which had been many others. The question can simply attributed to Socrates by the ancient tra- be formulated as follows: who was the dition, particularly Plato and Aristotle, historical Socrates, so as to not con- both of whom have become the ancient tradict the principles that Xenophon philosophers par excellence for modern called Socratic, and yet also inspired times. On the other hand, Socrates’ con- Plato to present him in his dialogues troversy results from the modern idea of in the way that he did?1 The aim of philosophy as a type of thought system our essay is to ask the Socratic ques- presented in the form of a text that can tion again, briefly look at the figure be critically examined. of Socrates in the context of Socratic The paradox to which this condi- literature, and make an attempt to find tion has led is obvious – what do we a possible answer. do with the ‘philosopher founder’ who did not write a single text, and whose 1 Schleiermacher (1852), p. cxlii. INTERNATIONAL ISSUE NO. 5/2018 52 SOCRATIC PROBLEM to the same subject, one of them must Socrates is not the only ancient philoso- be untrue. However, this does not nec- pher who wrote nothing. Among many essarily have to be the case. They may, others we mention Pythagoras, Pyrrho, for example, refer to another period of Epictetus, or Ammonius Saccas. We learn Socrates’ life, or to a different context in about them only through the accounts which Socrates addressed the particular and quotes preserved by their pupils, subject. Nor is it possible to unambigu- followers, commentators and critics. In ously assume from the consistency of order to reveal the views of a non-writ- multiple sources that they reflect the ing philosopher, these accounts need to view of the historical Socrates for the fol- be critically evaluated, and comparisons lowing reason: we cannot retroactively drawn. Our endeavour will lead to many guarantee the mutual independence of methodological problems. Why they are these resources, or their independence particularly conspicuous in Socrates is from another source used by the given owing to the fact that his name is con- authors but not preserved for us, or the tained in a relatively large number of general image of Socrates in the given genres of various texts which often offer time which did not have to correspond to very different images of Socrates. the views of Socrates himself,3 of which, This diversity is also caused by the by the way, Plato’s Socrates complains in fact that both classical and Hellenistic the Apology (18b–d). authors used to interpret a particular Eventually, similar problems asso- philosopher not as an individual his- ciated with the search for the historical torical person but rather as a represent- Socrates have prompted some interprets ative of a certain type of thinking and to believe that Socrates is a myth – a lit- behaviour which they either criticised erary fiction generated by a group of or praised from their position. Every- writers at the beginning of the 4th cen- one who tries to create a consolidated tury BC.4 Even if we reject such an picture of Socrates eventually comes across the question: ‘Do we judge our 3 Lacey (1971), pp. 367–368. conception of Socrates by what we find 4 A clear analysis of scholarly views on Socrates in the 19th and 20th centuries in the sources or do we judge the sources is given in J. Gajda-Krynicka (2006), by what we think we already know about pp. 36–49. According to her, Xenophon’s 2 version of Socrates is championed above Socrates?’ all by J. Brucker, H. Weissenborn, H. Arnim, Let us highlight some of the main H. Gomperz, A. Döring, L. Strauss, and methodological problems that accom- D. Morrison. F. Schleiermacher, J. Burnet, A. E. Taylor, C. Siegel, and H. Maier give pany the attempts to reconstruct the preference to Plato. K. Joel and D. Ross views of the historical Socrates. It lean towards Aristotle’s views. E. Zeller, G. Vlastos, W. K. C. Guthrie, U. Wilamowitz, might seem that if two sources about W. Jaeger, and A. Diés attempt to Socrates are in opposition with regard produce a synthesis. E. Duprée, out of all, sees Socrates most as a fictional character, while O. Gigon, A.–H. Chroust 2 Lacey (1971), p. 366. and E. Howald do not regard him as INTERNATIONAL ISSUE NO. 5/2018 MATÚš PORUBJAK 53 SOCRatES as THE paRadIGmatIC FIGURE OF PRactIcaL phILOSOphY extremely sceptical interpretation, we of the writings of the historian and phi- can still see that the interpretation tra- losopher Xenophon – his Memorabilia, dition essentially agrees only on two Symposium, Apology, Oeconomicus, and facts: that Socrates was sentenced to a short passus in his Anabasis (3, 1, death at the age of 70 in 399 BC, and 4–5). The third group consists of Plato’s that he never wrote anything himself.5 Dialogues in which Socrates emerges as At least, he did not write down anything the main speaker.6 philosophical, given that Plato, in his Aristotle’s writings form the fourth Phaedo (60d–61b), has Socrates say that group. Although Aristotle’s knowledge in jail he wrote the metrical version of of Socrates is only mediated, mainly Aesop’s fables and the hymn to Apollo, through Plato’s Academy, and his surviv- having been inspired by an ever-recur- ing work does not systematically address ring dream. him, his account is nevertheless valua- When looking for an image of the his- ble especially because Socrates’ name is torical Socrates, the textual tradition is usually mentioned in relation to some based on the following 5 sources of infor- philosophical problem or an attitude, mation. The first three are composed thus suggesting a possible fashion of of the texts of Socrates’ younger con- Socrates’ philosophical views. temporaries. The oldest of the sources, The last group of information sources Aristophanes, depicted Socrates in his includes a wide range of authors from comedies, above all in the Clouds, and via about the 5th century BC up to the 3rd brief referrals in the Birds and the Frogs. century AD. Among them are Socrates’ The second group of sources is composed contemporaries and pupils such as Antisthenes, Aeschines of Sphettus, a philosopher. Gajda-Krynicka (2006), Euclid of Megara, Phaedo of Elis, Simon pp. 58–60 herself joins this opinion, and ‘the Shoemaker’ of Athens, and others. at the end of her study she concludes that Socrates was not a philosopher, since he The texts of these authors have been pre- offered no philosophical doctrine. The served in either a very fragmented way, current basic sources for the study of Socratic issues are the compendiums of or we only know of them from doxogra- Vlastos (1971), Ahbel-Rappe and Kamtekar phers, which is regrettable, as otherwise (2006), Bussanich and Smith (2013), and most recently Stavru and Moore (2018). 6 According to Vlastos (1991), pp. 46–47, 5 All doxographic tradition agrees on (1994), p. 135 these are principally the Socrates’ lack of writing. The exception so-called earlier (elenctic) dialogues is Epictetus who attributes considerable of Plato – Apology, Charmides, Crito, writing activity to Socrates (Arrian, Epicteti dissertationes 2, 1, 32). In this Euthyphro, Gorgias, Hippias Minor, Ion, instance, however, we are probably Laches, Protagoras, Republic I; then the dealing with a misunderstanding caused transitional dialogues – Euthydemus, by mistaking writings on Socrates with Hippias Major, Lysis, Menexenus, Meno; those by Socrates; cf.
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