-Socrates is the most famous philosopher who never wrote anything! We only know about him from other authors writing about him.
-As a fun aside, he was also apparently really ugly!
-Socrates was executed via poison in 399 BC, and while it's possible that he was killed because he was seen as a blasphemer, it's also possible that he was persecuted for political reasons as well. It's unclear.
-Socrates actually wasn't just some dude who had spent his whole life annoying people- he had actually been a soldier and fought the Spartans and others.
-He even fought in the Peloponnesian War at the Battle of Delium, in which the Athenians lost against the Boeotians (allies of Sparta) in 424 BC.
-He was apparently a badass fighter and absolutely fearless, according to the Athenian general Alcibiades.
-He is portrayed by both Aristophanes (c. 446 – c. 386 BC) and Xenophon (c. 430–354 BC) as having a biting wit and also being obsessed with virtue.
-Aristophanes was an Athenian comedian and playwright, very clever and perverted.
-He portrayed Socrates in his play "The Clouds" as a comic figure, usually reserved for gods or divine heroes.
-Portrayed Socrates as a sophist, trying to get the main character to worship the clouds instead of the gods.
-This was surprising, since Socrates allegedly always clashed with the sophists. Socrates' motives seemed to be different, as he was motivated by virtue.
-Plato actually notes that Socrates was widely viewed as a sophist. However, the distinguished that Socrates was kind of a "noble sophist", battling against false beliefs as opposed to trolling. Also, Socrates was poor and never asked for money, unlike the sophists.
-Aristophanes also uses Socrates as a target to make fun of Pre-Socratic philosophers in general, who were obsessed with astrology and perhaps may have believed that air was a divine principle.
-Both Aristophanes and Xenophon are adamant that Socrates never got into scientific discussions or anything like that.
-What's crazy is that it was the very concept of Socrates getting someone to turn their back on the gods that ended up getting him executed.
-Xenophon had been an exile of Athens for a long time due to his role in joining an army of Greeks as a mercenary in a push to overthrow King Artaxerxes II of Persia (extremely simplified version). However, the attempt failed, and Xenophon had to travel back to Greece from Persia! Really dangerous!
-He recorded his journey in the book "Anabasis" ("Expedition Up From").
-Xenophon also wrote about Socrates, perhaps inspired by Plato and what he was doing with his writings.
-Xenophon's Socrates was very different from Plato's. His goal was not to use Socrates as a philosophical foil, but to vindicate him from the ridicule and accusations made against him in his trial.
-In Xenophon's writings, Socrates is a paragon of virtue, and is actually a believer in divine providence and that we must respect the gods.
-Socrates is also extremely arrogant when he is on trial.
-Additionally, if Socrates was a paragon of virtue, then why was he charged with corrupting the youth? The answer is that it's possible that many young men did start to imitate Socrates' behavior, as Socrates promoted independence and freedom.
-For example, although he was poor, he was self-sufficient (unlike many rich people!). Socrates argued that the true slaves were actually tyrants, and that sophists were just whores. Socrates was also in debt to no one, had many friends, and followed his own rules.
-Xenophon agrees with Plato in that Socrates taught that knowledge is the most important thing in life, and a virtue in and of itself.
-To do anything virtuously is to do it well, and to do it well is to act with knowledge. This is a strong political point too. After all, you wouldn't choose an untrained doctor to operate on you!
-It's also worth pointing out that Xenophon does portray Socrates as sometimes doling out kind of banal advice about random crap as well though, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment