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In the introduction of Socrates: A Very Short Introduction, C.C.W Taylor describes Socrates as one of the most influential and most elusive of all philosophers.  His influence was due to his personality, the impact he had on Plato, and of being the ideal model of the philosophic life.

His elusiveness is attributed to the fact that he wrote nothing and the only complete examples left are from Plato’s dialogues and the writing of Xenophon with a few scrapes written by others. There are enough differences in these writings to presume the writing were presented with their own purposes in mind.

            To summarize the Life chapter, Taylor tells us Socrates’ father was a stonemason and his mother was a midwife and he had three sons from a bad-tempered wife. A second wife named Myrto is mentioned in the writings, but little is known of her. Little is known of the first half of his life other than he was a pupil of Archealaus who was interested in natural philosophy and ethics. He believed the just and the disgraceful exist not by nature, but by learned behavior. Socrates early philosophic interest are shown in Plato’s Phaedo.

           

Historically, Socrates emerged on the scene with his courageous service in the Peloponnesian war. Plato described him as having tremendous physical endurance, wore simple clothing and walked barefoot. He was talkative and was a joke for his eccentric and simple lifestyle. His odd physical appearance, strange religious beliefs, and talk of nonsensical philosophy added to this “strange” portrayal. These characteristics were stressed by the comic playwright Aristophanes in his play Clouds. In the play, students pay Socrates to learn techniques to avoid paying debts by learning how to make the weaker argument defeat the stronger or as Taylor describes it as the Unjust argument defeats the Just argument. Socrates is also portrayed as a philosopher who was fascinated by the heavens and rejected traditional religion in favor of natural gods replacing Zeus. The play concludes with his house burning down as a symbolism of his punishment.

Taylor talks about the views of Socrates being caricatured as a representative of the new learning and out of the norm for the conservative Athenians. but the citizens of Athens were probably aware of this exaggeration since there was a signification difference between the wealth of the Sophist and Socrates who gave his time away at no charge and lived in poverty.

Drastic changes occurred in Athens after its defeat in the Peloponnesian war. No longer a democracy, Athens fell under the tyranny of a group of 30 which killed or exiled thousands of people. From the writings, Socrates remained apolitical during the tyranny as he did under a democracy even though he did have associations with a few of the thirty.

Socrates was indicted and brought to trial in the Spring of 399 BC for not recognizing the gods of the city, bringing in new gods and corrupting the youth. Meletus who brought on the indictment caricaturized Socrates as having eccentric beliefs and guided by an inner voice which warned him against being involved in politics. There’s no record of the trial, no writings on the speeches for the prosecution, but there are two written for the defense, one by Xenophon and one by Plato.

I learned from this chapter the accusations against Socrates were vague and seemed political. His associates among the 30 were anti-Athenian and anti-democratic and were part of a religious scandal in 415 BC. Aristophanes in the Clouds portrayed Socrates as an antagonist of traditional religion and was involved in the occult.

The defense against these accusations written by Plato and Xenophon were very different from each other. In Plato’s version, the accusations against Socrates were misrepresented by the caricature of Aristophanes in two ways – that he claims to be a natural philosopher and he teaches for pay. Also, mentioned in the defense was his divine mission. I thought this divine mission was fascinating. Socrates’ friend asked the oracle of Apollo at Delphi if there was anyone wiser than Socrates, in which the answer was no. Socrates was puzzled by this answer, since he didn’t claim any expertise. As a result, he went out to find someone wiser than he. When he questioned, them he discovers none are as wise as they claimed to be. From this he concluded, the reason he was the wisest is that he was aware of his own ignorance and had a mission to show others their claims of their wisdom were false. This examination of others was a large part of his unpopularity, but what he believed to be a great benefit to the society.

In Xenophon’s defense, the oracle said no one was more free-spirited or self-controlled than Socrates and that his defense to the charges were to refute the claims of not recognizing the local gods and the charges of the new gods were his own divine sign.

 I wondered why the defenses offered different versions of the oracle story and the author does a good job explaining this for he questions whether the story of the oracle is true or an invention of Plato. He believes it is true, and raises great points in defense, such as asking the question; why name a specific person (Chaerephon) as the person who asked the question of the oracle and points out that after the death of Chaerephon his brother testified the story as being true at the trial. As far as the differences?  Just like today we all see circumstances through our own experiences.  I believe both defense told the story with their own opinion and purpose in mind. As for which defense captures the moment more authentically, I believe everyone has a need for a purpose in their lives and Socrates divine mission fits that bill and I can’t help but thinking of today’s term of ‘fake news’ when reading of the effects of Aristophanes caricature of Socrates.

Questions:

Is there any evidence of the Delphi oracle?

What does Socrates mean by the phrase “the best of one’s soul”?