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The third chapter of Socrates: A Very Short Introduction, C.C.W Taylor describes the Socratic problem as to whether the sources we have access to can give us an accurate depiction to the life and character of the historical Socrates. This task is a challenge, given the sources are variable and sometimes contradictory. This chapter gives us an overview of the existing ancient literature and which style of literature it belongs to. The chapter is divided into two sections, works by Plato and works by the other authors.

The author starts what he calls the first kind of Socratic literature being a caricature with the depiction of Socrates in fifth-century comedy. As mentioned in the previous post, this depiction was the main driver to the suspicion and ill-will that led to his death. Another type of genre was the one represented with mimes. He connects Aristotle’s Poetics to Sopron and Xenarchus; two writers who represented fictional characters of everyday life as mimes.  Taylor warns us that although these mimes of fictional characters are in the same genre as Socratic conversations we should not assume that the Socratic conversations are fictional too. The Socratic conversations were composed of associates of Socrates, as many as nine were noted in the chapter not including Xenophon and Plato. Another point the author brings out is that these writings appear to all be written after Socrates death. Were these written with the intention of defending Socrates honor and the unjust charges against him? I believe they were. Also noted was a friend of Socrates named Diogenes Laertius who was reported to make notes of their conversations. The author warns us that note taking was used to preserve authentic material and not used as a word for word record.

We know that very little of this literature survived apart from the writings of Xenophon and Plato. Some of it is what Taylor calls thematic interconnections or connections with Platonic dialogues. For example, Aeschines, Antisthenes, Eucleides, and Phaedo wrote Alcibiades; Aeschines and Antisthenes wrote Aspasia and Crito wrote in Protagoras. With interest, I read about the surviving fragment housed in Cologne. It tells us of a dialogue between Socrates and a prison cellmate in which the cellmate asks why Socrates did not defend himself. Socrates answers that pleasure is the supreme end of life. What a testimony to what a man practicing what he believes!

Xenophon states the words of one of Socrates accusers this way, ‘Critias and Alcibiades, associates of Socrates, did the greatest harm to the city. For Critias was the most covetous and violent of all the oligarchs, and Alcibiades the most wanton and licentious of all the Democrats.’ Taylor explains the situation above called for the many writing of the dialogues between Socrates and the two youths. Alcibiades fell into criminal behavior not because he followed Socrates’ advice, but because he ignored it. Alcibiades appears to have had an ego problem because of his good looks. He believed he had the ability to become a great politician just like his war hero Themistocles. Socrates tried to convince him he didn’t have the ability because he didn’t have the knowledge. It’s interesting to read that by the word knowledge, he meant knowing what is best. In Critias’ case, he behaved well when he was in Socrates company, but not so when he wasn’t. He did not keep company with Socrates because he regarded him highly, but felt he could gain some political power from him. In these writing associating the youth of Athens, such as Symposium and Alcibiades the writers were defending Socrates reputation against his accusation of corrupting the youth.

Aside from the fragments and interconnections mentioned above, another informative surviving piece is Aeschines’ Aspasia. In this dialogue, Socrates recommends a notorious high classed prostitute named Aspasia as a tutor. He defended his recommendation by saying she was an expert in rhetoric and marriage with a clientele that included Pericles and Lysicles. I can see how she probably became an expert in these areas by conversing with high profile men and listening to all their marital problems.

Of the complete works that survived, the author briefly catalogues Xenophon works starting with the Apology as a defense of Socrates, following with Symposium which was a conversation during a dinner party in which Socrates was a guest, and finally Memorabilia which consists of four books of Socratic conversations described as a fuller version of the Apology with conversations on ethics and good practical advice. Examples include the importance of physical fitness, table manners, joys of virtue, and answers to the question, what is justice.

Plato’s works are described next and are divided into three categories which are divided by style. Plato’s early works depict Socrates in the main role as a man comfortable in the art of argumentation against sophists and others. Also, early depictions of his trial and death appear in these early works. A middle category shows Socrates in more of a representative role and closer to the style of the late group. These works include Parmenides and the Republic.

Some of the works of the late group, such as the Sophist, Statesman, and Theaetetus are divided into a category in which Socrates only appears in the introduction with his normal role as the main conversationalist is portrayed by someone else. These are considered to be written in the latter stage of Plato’s life as was Laws, where Socrates is not mentioned at all.

Lastly, the chapter talks about forms. From what I deciphered from this last section, was that the ideas of Socrates did not separate universals from their instances as Plato’s form did. The early writings of Plato did portrait the forms of Socrates, but as Plato’s ideas developed he moved away from Socrates and into his own forms which explained the infrequent appearance of Socrates in his works.

To summarize what I learned, what is known is not based on actual conversations statements, assumptions are needed for the reliability of the sources, most of the conversations were written after his death, and as noted above, very little of this literature aside from Xenophon and Plato has survived. The early writings may somewhat depict the historical truth, but as time went on the ideas of the writers may have created Socrates’ historical image.

Questions:

1) The thematic interconnections by Aeschines, Antisthenes, and Crito among others. Were these all written in Plato’s dialogues or in dialogue they wrote themselves with the same name?

2) Is the tripartite soul attributed to Plato similar to the tripartite of Christian theology?