DOCSLIB.ORG

The Socratic Problem: a Possible Solution

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Socratic Problem: a Possible Solution International Journal of English and Literature (IJEL) ISSN 2249-6912 Vol. 2 Issue 4 Dec - 2012 69-72 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd., THE SOCRATIC PROBLEM: A POSSIBLE SOLUTION RAJ KISHOR SINGH Ph. D. Scholar, L. N. Mithila University, Darbhanga, Bihar, India ABSTRACT The present paper deals with the classical problem and mystery regarding the great philosopher of all the time- Socrates. Some writers, historians and critics raise questions on existence of Socrates- Was he really born? Did he really live in the earth? Such questions have been also raised on existence of Shakespeare. I have consulted some resources and found logical evidences that forward the truth that Socrates really existed in the earth, without any doubt. KEYWORDS: Existence, Kilpatrick, Enigma, Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plato, Socratic Problem, Mac Flecknoe, Caricature, Mock-Heroic, Sherlock Holmes, Mythology, Skepticism, Robinson Crusoe, Alexander Selkirk, Phaedo INTRODUCTION Jorge Luis Borges can inspire anybody to look into the history and solve any hidden mystery. Borges investigated the historical case of Kilpatrick, the secret and glorious leading Irish revolutionary captain, who turns to be the hero and the traitor, the same, at the same time. He suggests us that history must be interpreted. Enigmas must be exposed, explored and publicized. Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. His birth is often quoted as c. 469 BC - 399 BC. 1 He is the founder of Western philosophy. However, details about him are unclear, paradoxical, and inaccurate. Socrates did not write anything. All the details come from others, from his students like Plato and from his contemporaries like Aristophanes and Xenophon. Inaccurate and inconsistent details have created a problem, which is called the Socratic problem. Purpose behind this paper is to get into the issue and explore the truth. The Socratic Problem Richard Tarnas is right to say all great people have suffered in history at the birth of a new thought. 2 Jesus, Buddha, Galileo and many others suffered at their innovations. Socrates is still suffering from vigorous dispute over his identity and existence, though he is believed to have died at the birth of philosophy. His enigmatic and inscrutable identity is moving in the whirlpool set by historians, authors and interpreters. Socrates is an enigma, the whole issue standing as the Socratic problem, in his appearance, personality, and behavior, views and methods. The extant sources such as Plato's 'Theaetetus' (143e) and 'Symposium' (215 a-c, 216 c-d, 221 d-e), Xenophon's 'Symposium' (4.19, 5.5 - 7), and Aristophanes's 'Clouds' (362) describe Socrates as an ugly character - with bulging eyes, bulged out stomach, a flat, upturned nose with flaring nostrils, large fleshy lips, and swaggering gait. 3 The man with knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, geometry, music, ancient history, linguistics, etc. was very strange that he didn't work to earn a living and neither took voluntary participation in the state affairs. Another wonderful description is that he denied being a teacher. Neither had he taken any money for his works done. The poor man lived in poverty whole life. Such a man of knowledge and wisdom had the upper hand in every discussion though he never claimed that he knew anything important. 70 Raj Kishor Singh Socrates is an enigmatic character still in our study because of various details and various interpretations by litterateurs like Aristophanes (Playwright, ±450 - ± 386), historians like Xenophon, philosophers like Plato, and many others. Aristophanes claims to have known Socrates in his early years. Xenophon claims to have known him as his companion, as in his words "I was never acquainted with anyone who took greater care to find out what each of his companions knew" (Memorabilia 4.7.1). Plato's details in his works claim that he had known Socrates in his later years. These three people differ with their accounts, and that was possible because they were from three different professions. Details and interpretations from these and many others have rather developed the complexities - arising the major issue over the skeptic identity and existence of Socrates, with a sense of puzzle, the Socratic problem, that many have worked hard to solve and many are still making efforts. Cornelia de Vogel (1955) argues that all the interpretations that we have by this time represent only a ‘theoretically possible’ Socrates. 4 I have made my effort to link the 'Socratic problem' with some important literary, historical and mythological events and dare to find a way out. 'THE SOCRATIC PROBLEM' AND DRYDEN'S 'MAC FLECKNOE' The playwrights Aristophanes and John Dryden have much similarity in this regard. Aristophanes mockingly caricatures Socrates in his play 'Clouds' (423 BC). In the play, the character Socrates is shown as to be leading the young men in the part 'Think-o-Rama.' They do not show any respect for the Athenian sense of propriety. Caricatured Socrates makes fun of the traditional gods of Athens (lines 247-48, 367, 423-24). The play's Socrates caricatures real Socrates and presents naturalistic explanations of those phenomena that the Athenians believed to be divine's phenomena (lines 227-33). Socrates in the play teaches the young men to avoid repayment of debts (lines 1214-1302). This fake Socrates also teaches them to beat their parents into submission (lines 1408-46). 5 John Dryden's 'Mac Flecknoe' is a mock-heroic satire in verse. This one is a mocking caricature of a real man Thomas Shadwell. Dryden and Shadwell had disagreements over literary issues. The poem has allusions to the 17th century literary works and classic Greek and Roman literature. Dryden disliked Shadwell because Shadwell didn't like Dryden's wits, style, rhyme and comedies in general. Both of them were associated with two different parties (Shadwell 'Whig', and Dryden 'Stuart monarchy'). 6 Were there similar situations and oppositions between Socrates and Aristophanes? Aristophanes might have many reasons for the mocking caricature of real Socrates: 1. He wished to present Socrates with comic exaggeration for his strange physical, social, religious, moral and intellectual character. 2. He did not like Socrates for his deleterious effect on the youth of the city, and also for his neglecting of the poets. These complaints are observed in Birds (line 414) and Frogs (line 405). Socrates in Plato's Apology (18 a-b, 19 c) speaks in his defense during the trial that all false things about him were raised and spread about by Aristophanes in his plays. From the above details, it is obvious that both Aristophanes and Socrates had some disagreements and oppositions between them. Like Dryden's Mac Flecknoe and Shadwell, Socrates in the plays of Aristophanes and Socrates as the Athenian philosopher were the same and real, after all, in existence. The Socratic Problem: A Possible Solution 71 'THE SOCRATIC PROBLEM' AND DOYLE'S SHERLOCK HOLMES Arthur Conan Doyle is well known for his detective stories, but the detective character of his stories is much better known than him among readers. When he wished to slay Holmes and "winding him up for good and all" because Holmes took his mind from better things, his mother responded, "You won't !, You can't !, You mustn't !” 7 When Holmes was really pulled to death in his story "The Final Problem", there is a saying that his readers cried and many of them went to the Baker Street in search of Holmes and his home. The author was bound to bring back Holmes to life in his next story. The above details, I think, can provide the impression that an author may have on his readers. Socrates can be a fictional character and may have given better impression on the readers as a real one. This can be an argument on one side, but we must not deny the truth that Conan Doyle's fictional character Holmes was identical to his former university teacher Joseph Bell, for his ways of deduction, inference and observation. 8 This correlation between fictional character and real character can be related to fictional character and real character of Socrates. Without real identity and existence, Socrates would not have been born in the play of Aristophanes in the history of Xenophon and in the philosophy and dialogues of Plato. THE 'SOCRATIC PROBLEM' AND MYTHOLOGY Socrates was not born out of mythology. Jesus was real and he got his place in the Bible. Mohammad was real and he got his place in the Quran. Buddha was real and he got his place in the Buddhist scripture. There are several magical and miraculous incidents illustrated in the scriptures, which can be taken as fictional and mythological exaggerations, but such exaggerations are not found in Plato's works. Nothing is magical and miraculous in the works of Aristophanes, Xenophon and Plato. Therefore, Socrates is not fictional and mythological character. He is not an enigma any way. EXTANT SOURCES: ARISTOPHANES, XENOPHON, AND PLATO Three people are the extant sources that report acquaintance with Socrates in different periods of his life. Aristophanes presented Socrates in the form of mocking caricature. Xenophon was a soldier - historian. He was a practical man and loved horses and horsemanship. Naturally, we can expect biographical and historical details from this man. Plato was a philosopher, a learned and well-privileged man. He presented Socrates as a man of knowledge and wisdom. Three people observed and presented the same man Socrates in three different ways. I don't think that is impossible. A book can be read, comprehended and interpreted in ten different ways by ten different people. The same man can be acquainted, observed and characterized in three different ways by three different people. Unlike Aristophanes and Xenophon, Plato might have been acquainted with Socrates’ philosophy.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Moderately Ironic Reading of Xenophon's Oeconomicus
    David M. JOHNSON Ischomachus the Model Husband? A Moderately Ironic Reading of Xenophon's Oeconomicus Xenophon's Oeconomicus is usually considered a treatise on household management masquerading as a Socratic dialogue (Pomeroy). But for others the reverse is true (Strauss and the Straussians; see also Mackenzie and Nails in EMC 1985, Too's review of Pomeroy in CR 1995, and the less orthodox Straussian Stevens). How one comes down on this issue will obviously affect one's evaluation of Ischomachus' relationship with his wife, and of Xenophon as a Socratic writer. I argue that the Oeconomicus is both Socratic and economic, both didactic and ironic. Xenophon chose Ischomachus because both his virtues and his vices have much to teach Critobulus, Socrates' immediate interlocutor, and Xenophon's readers. Our Ischomachus is probably the man whose wife went on to become the Chrysilla who would marry and bear a son to her son-in-law Callias, driving her daughter to attempt suicide (Andocides 1.124-127). There may be evidence for this in Oeconomicus itself. Callias would fall for Chrysilla again when she was "an old battleaxe" (Andocides 1.127); Ischomachus promises his wife that she can maintain her status even in old age (Oec. 7.20). The scandals which would beset Chrysilla and her children may shed light on Ischomachus' otherwise odd failure to say much about children to the wife he had married in large part for the sake of children. There are other ironies. Ischomachus hardly shares Socrates' understanding of property as that one knows how to use. Critobulus, in fact, is evidently already rich enough in conventional terms: he needs another sort of help.
    [Show full text]
  • In Dialogue with the Greeks 1St Edition Kindle
    IN DIALOGUE WITH THE GREEKS 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Rush Rhees | 9781351964586 | | | | | In Dialogue with the Greeks 1st edition PDF Book Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Worlds Apart. This article needs additional citations for verification. Consequentialism Deontology Virtue. Ancient Philosophy. Notify us with 7 days of receiving, and we will offer a full refund without reservation! Kenklies, Karsten Minor wear and tears to head and foot of spine and some slight wear to spine edges. More information about this seller Contact this seller 8. Nabu Press, All Plato's writing, except for The Apology and the Letters, is in dialogue form. Social gadfly Socratic dialogue Socratic intellectualism Socratic irony Socratic method Socratic paradox Socratic questioning. Subjects; Plato. More information about this seller Contact this seller 1. I [69], , [1] o Vol. Plato wrote approximately 30 dialogues, in most of which Socrates is the main character. The translations of Meno, Laches and Euthydemus are included here for the first time. First Edition Thus. Wright, M. First Edition in this Format. Recco, Gregory and Eric Sanday eds. Socratic dialogue remained a popular format for expressing arguments and drawing literary portraits of those who espouse them. In some dialogues Plato's main character is not Socrates but someone from outside of Athens. Plato's Laws : Force and Truth in Politics. It is also said to be the longest day of the year, allowing for the densely packed twelve chapters. Details: Collation: Complete with all pages; 2 volumes o Vol. Cooper in Plato, Complete Works.
    [Show full text]
  • The Historicity of Plato's Apology of Socrates
    Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1946 The Historicity of Plato's Apology of Socrates David J. Bowman Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses Part of the Classical Literature and Philology Commons Recommended Citation Bowman, David J., "The Historicity of Plato's Apology of Socrates" (1946). Master's Theses. 61. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/61 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1946 David J. Bowman !HE HISTORICITY OP PLATO'S APOLOGY OF SOCRATES BY DA.VID J. BOWJWf~ S.J• .l. !BESIS SUBMITTED Ilf PARTIAL FULFILIJIE.NT OF THB: R}gQUIRE'IIENTS POR THE DEGREE OF IIA.STER OF ARTS Ill LOYOLA UlfiVERSITY JULY 1946 -VI'fA. David J. Bowman; S.J•• was born in Oak Park, Ill1no1a, on Ma7 20, 1919. Atter b!a eleaentar7 education at Ascension School# in Oak Park, he attended LoJola AcademJ ot Chicago, graduat1DS .from. there in June, 1937. On September 1, 1937# he entered the Sacred Heart Novitiate ot the SocietJ ot Jesus at Milford~ Ohio. Por the tour Jear• he spent there, he was aoademicallJ connected with Xavier Univeraitr, Cincinnati, Ohio. In August ot 1941 he tranaterred to West Baden College o.f Lorol& Universit7, Obicago, and received the degree ot Bachelor o.f Arts with a major in Greek in Deo.aber, 1941.
    [Show full text]
  • The Apology of Socrates, by Plato
    The Apology of Socrates, by Plato The Project Gutenberg Edition Trans: Benjamin Jowett INTRODUCTION. Socrates has been put on trial by the citizens of Athens for multiple “crimes” all related to his teaching of philosophy. Meletus is his prosecutor, but he is addressing a jury of hundreds of his fellow citizens. In this famous work, Socrates defends his practice of questioning everything and describes the beauty of a philosophical life. He also antagonizes his fellow Athenians… Note, Plato was Socrates’ student and this is report of how the trial went from Socrates’ perspective. Socrates himself wrote nothing – his philosophical career was spent verbally debating his fellow Athenians. APOLOGY How you, O Athenians, have been affected by my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that they almost made me forget who I was--so persuasively did they speak; and yet they have hardly uttered a word of truth. But of the many falsehoods told by them, there was one which quite amazed me;--I mean when they said that you should be upon your guard and not allow yourselves to be deceived by the force of my eloquence. To say this, when they were certain to be detected as soon as I opened my lips and proved myself to be anything but a great speaker, did indeed appear to me most shameless--unless by the force of eloquence they mean the force of truth; for is such is their meaning, I admit that I am eloquent. But in how different a way from theirs! Well, as I was saying, they have scarcely spoken the truth at all; but from me you shall hear the whole truth: not, however, delivered after their manner in a set oration duly ornamented with words and phrases.
    [Show full text]
  • Applying the Socratic Method to the Problem Solving Process
    American Journal of Business Education – August 2009 Volume 2, Number 5 Socratic Problem-Solving In The Business World Evan Peterson, University Of Detroit Mercy, USA ABSTRACT Accurate and effective decision-making is one of the most essential skills necessary for organizational success. The problem-solving process provides a systematic means of effectively recognizing, analyzing, and solving a dilemma. The key element in this process is critical analysis of the situation, which can be executed by a taking a Socratic approach to the situation. Applying the Socratic Method to the problem-solving model ensures a well-rounded and versatile analysis. Keywords: Problem-solving process, decision- making, critical analysis, Socratic Method INTRODUCTION he sheer complexity of today’s business organization is rivaled only by the complexity of the business environment in which it operates. The permutation of complexity and exacting time constraints companies and individuals face in making vital decisions involving thousands of people Tand millions of dollars can seem more daunting than storming the beaches of Normandy. However, all hope is not lost. The anxiety, along with the blood, sweat, and tears that come along with difficult decision-making can be reduced by having a clear, time-tested plan of attack that can be applied to the problem situation. The problem-solving model is one such plan of attack, for it provides a framework that an individual decision-maker or group of decision-makers can follow to reach a feasible solution to the problem. Situational analysis is the bread and butter of the problem-solving model, for it goes hand-in-hand with each step of the model.
    [Show full text]
  • |||GET||| Euthyphro 1St Edition
    EUTHYPHRO 1ST EDITION DOWNLOAD FREE Plato | 9781605977409 | | | | | Euthyphro dilemma Tsedeq is something that happens here, and can be seen, and recognized, and known. Practical Ethics 3d ed. Related topics Criticism of religion Ethics in religion Exegesis Faith and rationality History of religions Religion and science Religious philosophy Theology. Roughly, it is the view that there are independent moral standards: some actions are right or wrong in themselves, independent of God's commands. Euthyphro's final suggestion is that holiness is a kind of trading with Euthyphro 1st edition gods, where we give them sacrifices and they grant our prayers. Socrates points out that if both options were true, they together would yield a vicious circle, with the gods loving the pious because it is the Euthyphro 1st edition, and the pious being the pious because the gods love it. Positions Aesthetics Formalism Institutionalism Aesthetic response. At this point the dilemma surfaces. Early life. Euthyphro's first definition of piety is what he is doing now, that is, prosecuting his father for manslaughter 5d. Clearly, the answer is again the latter, something becomes beloved when it is loved. Something is a meter long inasmuch as it is the same length as the standard meter bar, and likewise, something is good inasmuch as it approximates God. Essentialists apply labels to things because they possess certain essential qualities that make them what they are. Is something "beloved" in and of itself like being big or redor does it become beloved when it is loved by someone? Emrys Westacott is a professor Euthyphro 1st edition philosophy at Alfred University.
    [Show full text]
  • Voltaire Voltaire's Enlightenment Philosophy
    Voltaire François-Marie d'Arouet (1694–1778), better known by his pen name Voltaire, was a French writer and public activist who played a singular role in defining the eighteenth-century movement called the Enlightenment. At the center of his work was a new conception of philosophy and the philosopher that in several crucial respects influenced the modern concept of each. Yet in other ways Voltaire was not a philosopher at all in the modern sense of the term. He wrote as many plays, stories, and poems as patently philosophical tracts, and he in fact directed many of his critical writings against the philosophical pretensions of recognized philosophers such as Leibniz, Malebranche, and Descartes. He was, however, a vigorous defender of a conception of natural science that served in his mind as the antidote to vain and fruitless philosophical investigation. In clarifying this new distinction between science and philosophy, and especially in fighting vigorously for it in public campaigns directed against the perceived enemies of fanaticism and superstition, Voltaire pointed modern philosophy down several paths that it subsequently followed. To capture Voltaire's unconventional place in the history of philosophy, this article will be structured in a particular way. First, a full account of Voltaire's life is offered, not merely as background context for his philosophical work, but as an argument about the way that his particular career produced his particular contributions to European philosophy. Second, a survey of Voltaire's philosophical views is offered so as to attach the legacy of what Voltaire did with the intellectual viewpoints that his activities reinforced.
    [Show full text]
  • A Map of Crito (ΚΡΙΤΩΝ)
    ΠΛΑΤΩΝ | Plato: Four Dialogues Handout 8 A Map of Crito (ΚΡΙΤΩΝ) 43a–44b After the trial, Socrates’s (wealthy; see Apology 38b) friend Crito visits him in prison. He brings news of his imminent execution. 44b–46a Crito tries to persuade Socrates to escape. Reason 1. The common people (οἱ πολλοὶ, hoi polloi) will think Crito let Socrates down, so the friends’ reputation will be damaged, with bad individual con- sequences. Reason 2. Money is not an issue. Reason 3. Socrates would be welcome abroad. Reason 4. Socrates complies with his enemies; he throws away his life. Reason 5. Socrates irresponsibly betrays his duty to his sons. Reason 6. Socrates is a coward. 46b–50a Socrates replies. To Reason 1: not all opinions have the same value. We should listen to the experts and the wise: the qualified. What matters in the present predicament is the expert on justice, for the question is whether it would be just for Socrates to abscond. Socrates reminds Crito that what is relevant is not merely a life, but a good life, or a well-lived life (τὸ εὖ ζῆν, to eu zên); and the good life is the just life. Socrates also reminds Crito of the long-held belief that one should never (willingly or intentionally) do an injustice (οὐδαμῶς δεῖ ἀδικεῖν, oudamôs dei adikein), and this entails that one should never do an injustice even if one is wronged, or somehow provoked (see Handout 6). Hence, the ‘established hypothesis’: non-retaliation. Doing injustice is doing harm and injury. Likewise for agreements or commitments (τις ὁμολογήσῃ, tis homologêsê): if they are just, one ought to fulfil them.
    [Show full text]
  • The Problem of Socrates Readable and Engaging, Both for the Philosophical and the Literary Audience
    i 11 I PIi 10 (2000), 267-275. 'I I 266 PIi 10 (2000) J I! This is not to say that Morgan's explorations of radical evil, Egyptian pyramids, regicide, talion law and so on are not interesting, nor that they are unconnected to the architectonic metaphor she wants to deconstruct. Her exploration of these "very heterogeneous themes" (as Morgan herself 13 describes them ) is in fact fascinating for anyone interested in Kant, and the way she draws them together is generally convincing. Her prose is The Problem of Socrates readable and engaging, both for the philosophical and the literary audience. It's just that there are too many heterogeneous themes, and too Sarah Kofman, Socrates: Fictions of a Philosopher, Translated by many textual references, to analyze adequately in one fairly short book Catherine Porter (London: Athlone, 1998) without the analysis seeming scattered and incomplete. If the reader is left I with a sense of frustration at the end of Kant Trouble, it is not because JOHN SELLARS Morgan has revealed the principle of crumbling at the foundation of II I 1 Kant's system, but because she has failed to give her most interesting points the attention they deserve. One wants both more and less of Morgan: more analysis of Kant's II!! They say that Socrates, texts within the limitations of a single thematic cluster, and less 1 having heard Plato reading from his Lysis, said, wandering through her extensive library. This is my one reservation about '1 this otherwise enticing, original, and interesting book. The obvious "By Heracles, how many lies this young man says about me".1 I question, the one about the philosophical validity of asserting the instability of the Kantian edifice on the basis of the metaphors he uses, seems to be precluded by the genre of cultural studies, under which even For many people Socrates is the archetypal philosopher, the patron saint a comparative analysis of Kant and Gainsborough might be applauded.
    [Show full text]
  • SOCRATES on the DEFINITION of FIGURE in the MENO Theodor Ebert
    SOCRATES ON THE DEFINITION OF FIGURE IN THE MENO Theodor Ebert (Erlangen University) Plato’s Meno is, in its rst part (up to 79e), an attempt to nd a de ni- tion of virtue (`"%). Meno, Socrates’ interlocutor, thinks that this is an easy task and provides Socrates with a list of virtues for several dif- ferent persons, for a man, a woman, a child, an old man, a free man and a slave (71e–72a). When Socrates has made it clear to Meno that such a list does not qualify as a de nition (72c6–d1), since it does not give a single explanation covering all the virtues, Meno comes up with a different proposal: virtue is the ability to rule over other men (73c9). This leads to an even more spectacular failure on Meno’s part: since such an ability can hardly be the virtue of a child or a slave (73d2–5), this de\ nition would be too narrow; yet it is also too broad, since ruling over people without justice would not count as virtue either (73d6–10). Meno accepts his defeat and declares that he is unable to \ nd a common explanation for all the virtues, as he is in other cases (74a11–b1). Socrates then explains to Meno that they are searching for the de\ - nition of a general concept and he proposes to his partner to do rst some preparatory work on an easier example, that of the de nition of a gure (μ) (74e11–75a9). When Meno declines to engage in this sort of inquiry and wants Socrates to do the job for him (75b1), Socrates is willing to do so, provided that afterwards Meno will tell him what he takes the de\ nition of virtue to be (75b2–6).
    [Show full text]
  • Crito-Vs-Apology.Pdf
    Macalester Journal of Philosophy Volume 13 Article 4 Issue 1 Spring 2004 5-1-2004 Socrates Misinterpreted and Misapplied: An Analysis of the Constructed Contradiction between the Apology and the Crito Masha Marchevsky Macalester College Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/philo Recommended Citation Marchevsky, Masha (2004) "Socrates Misinterpreted and Misapplied: An Analysis of the Constructed Contradiction between the Apology and the Crito," Macalester Journal of Philosophy: Vol. 13: Iss. 1, Article 4. Available at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/philo/vol13/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy Department at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Macalester Journal of Philosophy by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Socrates Misinterpreted and Misapplied: An Analysis of the Constructed Contradiction between the Apology and the Crito Masha Marchevsky Introduction Plato’s dialogues portray Socrates, the philosopher, through his conversations with others. The Apology, one of the first dialogues written by Plato, presents Socrates’ argument to the court as to why he is not guilty of breaking Athenian law under the accusation of corrupting the youth and worshiping gods different from the gods everyone else worships. In his speech, Socrates shows that he has not corrupted the youth more than any other Athenian citizen has and that he is no atheist, but rather that he believes in gods and has even visited the Oracle. Moreover, Socrates argues that if doing philosophy make s him guilty, then the court should either put him to death or acquit him because he will never stop searching for wisdom.
    [Show full text]
  • On the Daimonion of Socrates
    SAPERE Scripta Antiquitatis Posterioris ad Ethicam REligionemque pertinentia Schriften der späteren Antike zu ethischen und religiösen Fragen Herausgegeben von Heinz-Günther Nesselrath, Reinhard Feldmeier und Rainer Hirsch-Luipold Band XVI Plutarch On the daimonion of Socrates Human liberation, divine guidance and philosophy edited by Heinz-Günther Nesselrath Introduction, Text, Translation and Interpretative Essays by Donald Russell, George Cawkwell, Werner Deuse, John Dillon, Heinz-Günther Nesselrath, Robert Parker, Christopher Pelling, Stephan Schröder Mohr Siebeck e-ISBN PDF 978-3-16-156444-4 ISBN 978-3-16-150138-8 (cloth) ISBN 987-3-16-150137-1 (paperback) The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Natio- nal bibliographie; detailed bibliographic data is availableon the Internet at http:// dnb.d-nb.de. © 2010 by Mohr Siebeck Tübingen. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to reproductions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. This book was typeset by Christoph Alexander Martsch, Serena Pirrotta and Thorsten Stolper at the SAPERE Research Institute, Göttingen, printed by Gulde- Druck in Tübingen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Spinner in Ottersweier. Printed in Germany. SAPERE Greek and Latin texts of Later Antiquity (1st–4th centuries AD) have for a long time been overshadowed by those dating back to so-called ‘classi- cal’ times. The first four centuries of our era have, however, produced a cornucopia of works in Greek and Latin dealing with questions of philoso- phy, ethics, and religion that continue to be relevant even today.
    [Show full text]