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This is the second of three podcasts on Aristophanes’ Clouds.
The first words, which were cut off, were something to the effect of: “What these three groups — the natural philosophers, the Sophists, and the ‘New Age’ counter-culture of the day — have in common is a certain critical distance from the reigning conventions.”
The Source of the Lecture
In September and October of 1998, I gave a course of eight, two-hour lectures on “The Trial of Socrates.” We covered the following topics and texts:
- Myth, pre-philosphical concepts of order, and the presocratic philosophical background of Aristophanes’ Clouds
- Aristophanes’ comedy Clouds, which gives a very unflattering portrayal of Socrates
- Plato’s dialogue Theages, which can be read as a rebuttal to the Clouds
- Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro, which is set just before the trial of Socrates and deals with one of the accusations against him, namely impiety
- Plato’s Apology of Socrates, his speech to the jury at his trial
- Plato’s dialogue Crito, which is set in his prison cell as Socrates awaits execution
- Plato’s dialogue Phaedo, which describes the last conversations and death of Socrates
The whole class was taped, but the tapes of the first lecture, which was an introduction to the whole course, and the last lecture, on the Phaedo, have disappeared. Nevertheless, the six remaining lectures, which I will release in 12 separate parts, contain a lot of useful material.
The books for the class are:
- A Presocratics Reader, ed. Patricia Curd (we used the first edition; the pagination may be different for the second edition)
- Plato and Aristophanes, Four Texts on Socrates: Plato’s “Euthyphro,” “Apology of Socrates,” “Crito,” and Aristophanes’ “Clouds”, ed. and trans. Thomas West and Grace Starry West
- Plato, Theages, in The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle
If anyone is interested in producing a transcript of this lecture, we will gladly publish it. Ideally, we would like one person to do a draft transcription and then place it online to allow other listeners to offer corrections. Please contact Greg Johnson at mailto://[email protected] before starting work, so we can prevent wasteful duplication of efforts.
Greg Johnson
Editor-in-Chief
5 Comments
Well, thank you. I am now truly inspired to read more of the Classical Greeks.
As one who has used the texts of both Plato and Aristophanes numerous times in teaching, I want to congratulate you on your perceptiveness and focus on the fundamental issues. Well done, indeed.
Thank you, I know you have a doctorate in philosophy as well, so it means a lot. I am very pleased with the lectures on THE CLOUDS and also the later lectures on the EUTHYPHRO, APOLOGY, and CRITO. The lecture on the THEAGES is a rough version compared to one I gave two years later, but I don’t have a tape of it.
Greg,
I have found this series to be greatly educational and entertaining. These pre-Socratics and later Greeks led fuller lives then those of today. Thank you for posting them.
Thank you, I am glad you are getting something out of it.