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Chapter 8
ICE AND HIGH MOUNTAINS
Nietzsche as Meta-philosopher
[M]any disapprove of all philosophers, because their aims are not ours; they are those whom I call “strangers to us.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks (more…)
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CHAPTER 1
GOING UNDERGROUND
Who killed philosophy?
Philosophy bestows this boon upon us; it makes us joyful in the very sight of death, strong and brave no matter in what state the body may be, cheerful and never failing though the body fail us.
Seneca, letter to Lucilius. (more…)
Plato’s cosmology as depicted by Calcidius in his commentary to his fourth-century Latin translation of the Timaeus.
Plato’s cosmology as depicted by Calcidius in his commentary to his fourth-century Latin translation of the Timaeus.
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I am embarrassed by the world. I cannot believe that a watch exists and has no watchmaker. — Voltaire
Which of the patterns had the artificer in mind when he made the world? — Plato
Given the world we have created, or rather a world which has been created for us, whoever “we” are could do a lot worse than take advice from the Classical world. For the vast majority of us, our world is one we never made, and those who did are becoming intentionally isolated, remote from those whose lives they control, living as they do in a dry and ideological gated community. (more…)
Gorgias of Leontini
Kristian Zahrtmann, Socrates and Alcibiades, 1911 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Kristian Zahrtmann, Socrates and Alcibiades, 1911 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
2,356 words
Part 7 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 6 here)
Having established that the true self is the soul and defended philosophical dialogue as the best path to self-knowledge, Socrates wraps up his argument.
Statesmanship & Moderation (more…)
John William Waterhouse, Psyche Opening The Golden Box, 1903
John William Waterhouse, Psyche Opening The Golden Box, 1903
2,497 words
Part 6 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, Part 7 here)
The final part of the Alcibiades I deals with the self and self-knowledge. Most ancient commentators held that this discussion is the core of the dialogue.
From Self-Cultivation to Self-Knowledge
Socrates has finally gotten Alcibiades to admit that he needs to pursue self-cultivation. But what is self-cultivation? We must answer that question lest we mistakenly cultivate something other than ourselves. (more…)
Condordia on the Jubilee Column in Stuttgart (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
Condordia on the Jubilee Column in Stuttgart (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)
1,887 words
Part 5 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 6 here)
In our previous installment, we examined the speech Socrates made to break Alcibiades out of his complacency and spur him to educate and cultivate himself if he wishes to attain world renown.
Back to Dialogue
To borrow a term from classical music, the Alcibiades I has a “sonata” form: ABA. The first part (A1) consists of Socrates’ initial dialogue with Alcibiades. Part B is the speech about the Persian and Spartan queens. The third part (A2) is a return to the dialogue form. Socrates and Alcibiades first return to the idea of justice. Then they discuss self-knowledge. (more…)
Xerxes I of Persia and his wife, Queen Amestris
Xerxes I of Persia and his wife, Queen Amestris
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Part 4 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 5 here)
In our previous installment, Socrates has convinced Alcibiades that he is ignorant of justice. Therefore, he should not go into politics until he is educated. But Socrates undermines his argument by pointing out that none of the other eminent Athenians, even Pericles himself, knows what justice is. From this, Alcibiades concludes that if his rivals for power are equally ignorant, he has no need to waste time on education, because he is confident that he can beat them based on his superior nature. (more…)
2,360 words
Part 3 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 4 here)
In the second part of this series, Socrates shows Alcibiades that he doesn’t know what justice is, so he should not be too eager to get involved in politics before he gets an education. But Alcibiades thinks he’s found a way around Socrates’ argument. Granted, he doesn’t know what justice is. But politics doesn’t really deal with justice (δικαιοσύνη). It deals with the expedient or advantageous (συμφέροντα). (more…)
A seventeenth-century engraving of Diogenes Laertius (image courtesy of Wikipedia).
A seventeenth-century engraving of Diogenes Laertius (image courtesy of Wikipedia).
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The Milesian philosophers were wrong about everything, but they asked the right questions, and for the first time sought natural explanations instead. — Luke Mueshaller, Pre-Socratics: A Painless Introduction
The limit of all wisdom is in me. — Epigram on Pythagoras, Boundaries, Duris
Although the twilight is darkening around Western philosophy, she is still just visible through the gloom. She had already been demoted from her role as theology’s handmaiden and queen of the sciences to a kind of antiquarian pursuit, like collecting moths in glass-covered frames or old jazz records. (more…)
2,359 words
Part 2 of 7 (Part 1 here, Part 3 here)
In the first part of this series, Socrates accuses Alcibiades of wanting to be a tyrant and argues that if he wishes to fulfill this ambition, he must study philosophy. Alcibiades won’t admit that he aspires to be a tyrant, but “if” he did, he wants to know what Socrates would teach him. (more…)
Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Socrates Tears Alcibiades from the Embrace of Sensual Pleasure, 1791.
Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Socrates Tears Alcibiades from the Embrace of Sensual Pleasure, 1791.
2,700 words
Part 1 of 7 (Part 2 here)
Author’s Note: I am typing up and editing my lecture notes on Plato’s Alcibiades I and Gorgias to incorporate them into a new book tentatively entitled Tyranny and Wisdom: An Introduction to Platonic Philosophy. The Phoenician neoplatonist philosopher Iamblichus (c. 245–c. 325) placed the Alcibiades I first and the Gorgias second in his curriculum of Plato’s dialogues, and with good reason, for together they constitute an excellent introduction to Socratic moral and political philosophy.
George Romney, The Ghost of Darius Appearing to Atossa (1778-79)
George Romney, The Ghost of Darius Appearing to Atossa (1778-79)
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Part 2 of 4 (Part 1 here)
The Play
Written nearly ten years after its subject events, Aeschylus’ drama The Persians was revolutionary, since its Athenian author[1] told the story from the enemy’s point of view; still, the sensibility was Greek. (more…)