Socrates: A Guide for the Perplexed (Guides for the Perplexed)

196 Pages·2009·1.2 MB·English

by  Sara Ahbel-Rappe

SOCRATES:
A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED
Continuum Guides for the Perplexed
Continuum’s Guides for the Perplexed are clear, concise and accessible
introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers
can find especially challenging. Concentrating specifically on what it is
that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore
key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding
of demanding material.
Guides for the Perplexed available from Continuum:
Adorno: A Guide for the Perplexed, Alex Thomson
Arendt: A Guide for the Perplexed, Karin Fry
Aristotle: A Guide for the Perplexed, John Vella
Bentham: A Guide for the Perplexed, Philip Schofield
Berkeley: A Guide for the Perplexed, Talia Bettcher
Deleuze: A Guide for the Perplexed, Claire Colebrook
Derrida: A Guide for the Perplexed, Julian Wolfreys
Descartes: A Guide for the Perplexed, Justin Skirry
The Empiricists: A Guide for the Perplexed, Laurence Carlin
Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Stephen Earnshaw
Freud: A Guide for the Perplexed, Celine Surprenant
Gadamer: A Guide for the Perplexed, Chris Lawn
Habermas: A Guide for the Perplexed, Lasse Thomassen
Hegel: A Guide for the Perplexed, David James
Heidegger: A Guide for the Perplexed, David Cerbone
Hobbes: A Guide for the Perplexed, Stephen J. Finn
Hume: A Guide for the Perplexed, Angela Coventry
Husserl: A Guide for the Perplexed, Matheson Russell
Kant: A Guide for the Perplexed, T. K. Seung
Kierkegaard: A Guide for the Perplexed, Clare Carlisle
Leibniz: A Guide for the Perplexed, Franklin Perkins
Levinas: A Guide for the Perplexed, B. C. Hutchens
Merleau-Ponty: A Guide for the Perplexed, Eric Matthews
Nietzsche: A Guide for the Perplexed, R. Kevin Hill
Plato: A Guide for the Perplexed, Gerald A. Press
Pragmatism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Robert B. Talisse and Scott F. Aikin
Quine: A Guide for the Perplexed, Gary Kemp
Relativism: A Guide for the Perplexed, Timothy Mosteller
Ricoeur: A Guide for the Perplexed, David Pellauer
Rousseau: A Guide for the Perplexed, Matthew Simpson
Sartre: A Guide for the Perplexed, Gary Cox
Socrates: A Guide for the Perplexed, Sara Ahbel-Rappe
Spinoza: A Guide for the Perplexed, Charles Jarrett
The Stoics: A Guide for the Perplexed, M. Andrew Holowchak
SOCRATES:
A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED
SARA AHBEL-RAPPE
Continuum International Publishing Group
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© Sara Ahbel-Rappe 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
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system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-0-8264-6377-7
PB: 978-0-8264-3325-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ahbel-Rappe, Sara, 1960-
Socrates: a guide for the perplexed/Sara Ahbel-Rappe.
p. cm. – (Guides for the perplexed)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8264-6377-7 (hb) – ISBN 978-0-8264-3325-1 (pb)
1. Socrates. I. Title. II. Series.
B317.A39 2009
183’.2–dc22 2008047958
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe Ltd,
Chippenham, Wiltshire
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vi
Abbreviations vii
Chapter One: Socrates: The Man and the Myth 1
Chapter Two: The Life and Death of Socrates 15
Chapter Three: The Sources for Socrates 32
Chapter Four: Plato’s Socrates 48
Chapter Five: Socratic Method and Epistemology 64
Chapter Six: Happiness and Virtue 80
Chapter Seven: The Socratic Schools 95
Chapter Eight: Socrates in the Modern World 111
Chapter Nine: Citizen Socrates 127
Chapter Ten: Conclusion: Socrates and Self-knowledge 143
Notes 157
Bibliography 166
Indices 177
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Sarah Campbell, editor of the Guides
for the Perplexed, as well as Tom Crick for his help with the project.
Thanks also to James I. Porter for his singular work on Nietzsche
and Socrates. I would also like to thank my teachers in graduate
school, A. A. Long, G. R. F. Ferrari and Gregory Vlastos, midwife
par excellence. Thanks, as well, to all of the contributors to the
Blackwell Companion to Socrates, whose original research has made
this work possible. In addition, the author thanks her own family
profoundly and apologizes for the time away from home needed to
complete the book. This book is dedicated to Karin.
ABBREVIATIONS
BT Nietzsche, F. 1999. The Birth of Tragedy. Cambridge
Texts in the History of Philosophy. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
CM Strauss, L. 1964. The City and the Man. Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
DL Diogenes Laertius. 1964. Vitae philosophorvm. Recog-
novit breviqve adnotatione critica instrvxit H.S. Long.
Oxonii: Typographeo Clarendoniano.
DRN Lucretius. 1992. De rerum natura. With an English
translation by W. H. D. Rouse; revised by M. Ferguson
Smith. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
LHP H egel, G. 1995. Lectures on the History of Philosophy I:
Greek Philosophy to Plato. Translated by E. S. Haldane.
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
LS Long, A. and Sedley, D. 1987. The Hellenistic Philoso-
phers. 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
M Kierkegaard, S. 1998. The Moment and Late Writings
(Kierkegaard’s Writings, Vol. 23). Translated by H. Hong
and E. Hong. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
(original work published 1854–5).
Mem. Memorabilia. 2003. Mémorables/Xénophon; texte établi
par M. Bandini; traduit par L. A. Dorion. Paris: Les
Belles Lettres. Budé.
Meta. Ross, D. 1924. Aristotle’s Metaphysics. A Revised Text
with Introduction and Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon
Press.

NE Aristotle. 1999. Nicomachean Ethics. Translated with
introduction, notes and glossary by T. Irwin. Indianapolis,
IN: Hackett.
SSR Giannantoni, G. 1990. Socratis et socraticorum reliquiae.
4 vols. Naples: Bibliopolis.
ABBREVIATIONS
SVF von Arnim, H. F. A. (ed.) 1859–1931. Stoicorum
veterum fragmenta collegit Ioannes ab Arnim. Lipsiae, in
aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1903–24. Dubuque, IA: W. C.
Brown, 1967.
TD C icero. 1985. Tusculan Disputations. Edited with trans-
lation and notes by A. E. Douglas. Warminster, UK:
Aris & Phillips; Chicago, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci.
PLATO’S DIALOGUES
Alcibiades I First Alcibiades
Ap. Apology
Ch. Charmides
Cr. Crito
Eu. Euthyphro
Euth. Euthydemus
Gor. Gorgias
Hi. Mi. Hippias Minor
La. Laches
Ly. Lysis
Parm. Parmenides
Phaed. Phaedo
Phdr. Phaedrus
Prot. Protagoras
R Republic
Symp. Symposium
Th. Theaetetus
Tim. Timaeus
viii
CHAPTER ONE
SOCRATES: THE MAN AND THE MYTH
OUR KNOWLEDGE OF SOCRATES
About Socrates – son of Chaeredemus, born in 469 BCE in the Deme
of Alopece and executed in 399 BCE by the Athenian democracy; hus-
band of Xanthippe; father of three sons; and associate of Plato – we
have a few facts and many reports.1 The most substantive of these
reports consists in the entire philosophical oeuvre of Plato, who was
28 years old when Socrates died, but who was sufficiently inspired by
his encounters with Socrates to make Socrates a central figure in all
but one of his dialogues. When we study the philosophy of Socrates,
the following is the first among the few facts that we do possess: since
Socrates wrote nothing, all that we know of his philosophy is necessar-
ily gleaned by consulting witnesses who vary in terms of their historical
reliability, philosophical acumen and possibly prejudicial dispositions.
Socrates is one of the most documented philosophers in history, but,
as in the case of Jesus, all of these documents are the creations of peo-
ple who either met him or, indeed, never met him. In this chapter, we
attempt to address some versions of what has come to be known as the
problem of Socrates: to what extent can we trace the philosophy of
Socrates woven within the threads of our various sources, and to what
extent is the philosophy of Socrates an invention of those who purport
to be writing about him? Our work here will be much more philologi-
cal at times than strictly philosophical, and the question ‘Socrates – man
or myth?’ will accompany us throughout the entire enterprise.
THE INVENTION AND REINVENTION OF SOCRATES
Studies on the philosophy of Socrates have never been more prolific
than at the present moment. Perhaps it would not be too much to say
1