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Professor John LeamanʻAtenisi university |
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Paper presented at ʻAtenisi Institute in March 2004. |
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It is entirely appropriate that some knowledge of Socrates be one of the acquisitions of everyone connected with Atenisi. After all his influence is felt in every hall of learning in the world today and Atenisi is named after his birthplace, Athens. He was born in 469 B.C. and died in 399 B.C. His last hours are reported in the dialogue by Plato entitled the Phaedo. Phaedo was an eyewitness to his execution. This was accomplished by drinking hemlock. It was the sentence of the court in Athens. This trial has often been compared to the trial of Jesus. He was accused of essentially being a menace to the society of the city. Meletus, Anytus and Lycon brought the charges of heresy and corrupting the minds of the young. Anytus was the principal accuser and reportedly bribed the entire jury. This second charge was, no doubt, considered the most serious. This charge, in my opinion, was at best absurd, unless teaching people to think is a corrupting influence. The charge of heresy was probably brought to discredit Socrates for his association with certain right wing aristocrats. Principal among these aristocrats was Alcibiades who was remembered as a traitor in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta. No doubt, another reason he was brought to trial was his well-known opposition to Democracy. Socrates was a sculptor, an occupation he learned from his father. His mother was a midwife. He has often been described as a midwife in the birthing of morally responsible people who followed his counsel. His technique of teaching called the Socratic Method is one of his most famous contributions to academics. It consisted of questioning his interlocutors about the precision of their definitions of words. He seemed to delight in exposing the fallaciousness of their arguments. Socrates even admits in Plato's Apology "the young men who have the most leisure, the sons of the richest men accompanying me of their own accord, find pleasure in hearing people being examined, and often imitate me themselves, and then they undertake to examine others; and then, I fancy, they find a great many plenty of people who think they know something, but know little or nothing." We get most of our information about Socrates from Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes, who satirized him. I have met several people who did not care for Socrates or his philosophy. I. F. Stone who wrote a book entitled The Trial of Socrates (the quote from the Apology comes from there P82) seems to almost, but not quite, justify his execution. He certainly supports his attackers. The book has been called the "the missing case for the prosecution" I enjoyed the book for its erudition but disagreed with his conclusions. I loved the historical Socrates and his philosophy. I. F. Stone, I think, just made him human. The equanimity in which he faced his own death reveals his character. I think everyone who reads Plato's dialogues will benefit from his moral philosophy. One of the characteristics of many of Plato's dialogues with Socrates playing a leading role is that they ended with an aporia. An aporia is a serious perplexity. That is, the dialogue was inconclusive. It left the reader with questions. Another defining characteristic of Socrates were his enquiries into what will promote a good and happy life. He argued that everyone wants to be happy. If people know what actions will lead them to that condition they cannot fail to behave that way. In other words everyone always conduct themselves in their perceived best interest. Ignorance then is the only barrier to happiness. This writer heartily concurs. I highly recommend him to you and his most famous student Plato. Thank you for reading this, Prof. John A. Leaman |
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