remembering socrates philosophical essays feb 2006

[...]... source of information about Socrates philosophy Plato certainly was an eyewitness to many events and discussions in which the historic Socrates was involved; he may have learnt some of them from the other disciples.7 Finally, of Socrates associates, he was certainly the best prepared to understand the philosophical subtleties in Socrates arguments The exercise of these philosophical skills, however,... the only sure method38 (4 6 15 13) Some think that here Xenophon alludes to long speeches ex cathedra by Socrates. 39 This seems unlikely: Socrates never delivers long speeches to his disciples, in either Xenophon or Plato The allusion here is to the dialogues between Socrates and his disciples when Socrates tries to gain the assent from the hearers using what later Aristotle will call the endoxa The... not apologetic Nor did Plato intend to accurately report the teaching of Socrates What Plato intends in the Wrst place is to present philosophical questions and possible answers to these questions In most cases, he sets the Wgure of Socrates on stage to argue for positions Plato seems to sympathize with Does that mean that he uses Socrates as a mouthpiece to express his own philosophy? Here again things.. .Socrates Dialectic in Xenophons Memorabilia 5 If anybody has the opinion, based on what some authors write and say about him, that though [Socrates] was very able in exhorting men to virtue, he was unable to lead them to it, let him examine if Socrates was able of improving his companions They should take account not only of the refutations based on questions, to which Socrates submitted... the portrait of Socrates made by other Socratics (Mem 1 4 1; 4 3 2) shows that his knowledge of this literature did not preclude a critical distance from it 9 The general methodology I recommend has much in common with the line of historical investigation G Vlastos followed in Vlastos (1991) Vlastos actually distinguishes two Wgures of Socrates, Socrates of the early dialogues and Socrates of the later... teachable Now, if it shall appear to be nothing but knowledge, as you, Socrates, argue, it would be astonishing if it were not teachable If we consider the thesis that wisdom (sophia) is identical with prudence (sophro sune ) which Socrates defends in 332ab we can even attribute to Socrates the stronger form of intellectualism In 332b Socrates argues that prudent actions are always done by prudence and... the Wrst sentence of the paragraph Socrates held Pos B; (2) according to the second last sentence (OCT 90 1921) Socrates held a variant of Pos A The meaning of neither sentence is controversial The next paragraph (3 9 5) is no less interesting for our purposes Right in the Wrst sentence (234) Xenophon tells us that Socrates held Pos D He then (90 24 91 4) reports Socrates argument for this It can be... point of view of what precedes, it seems clear that Socrates says that enkrateia enables men to make the right choice between diVerent pleasures, i.e to prefer the 19 Cf J J Walsh, The Socratic Denial of Akrasia, in G Vlastos (ed.), The Philosophy of Socrates (New York, 1971; repr Notre Dame, 1980), 23641; Cooper, Reason, 257; Strauss, Xenophons Socrates, 79 20 Cf 3 9 4 1 4; but the text is diYcult,... sense that Socrates was always seeking (zetountos) the deWnition and the universal, but never arrived at a deWnitive formula.34 The statement we Wnd in the Elenchi sophistici conWrms this: Socrates used to ask questions and not answer themfor he used to confess he did not know (34 183b68) If it is connected to Xenophons Memorabilia, Aristotles testimony assumes a more positive meaning: Socrates was... and of human virtue In the only passage in which an attitude of Socratic ignorance is attributed to Socrates this is put into the mouth of an opponent of Socrates, the sophist Hippias (4 4 9).7 It is clear that Xenophon does not subscribe to this image and thinks that a more positive description of Socrates philosophy is needed in order to defend him from his detractors and to show that he was a useful .