Tag: The Trial of Socrates

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The trial and death of Socrates is one of the most compelling places to begin one’s philosophical education. — Greg Johnson, The Trial of Socrates

Everyone strives to obtain the law. — Franz Kafka, The Trial

Philosophy in the West has been withering on the vine for decades. A combination of Jacques Derrida’s “death of the civilization of the book” and the replacement of that civilization with Guy Debord’s “society of the spectacle” has rendered philosophy outmoded, antique, and frankly too much like hard work for an intellectually undemanding generation. (more…)

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Greg Johnson
The Trial of Socrates
San Francisco: Counter-Currents, 2023
238 pages

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Author’s Note:

This is a substantially edited transcript of a 1998 lecture on Plato’s Apology of Socrates. The translation is from Plato and Aristophanes, Four Texts on Socrates: Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito and Aristophanes’ Clouds, trans. Thomas G. West and Grace Starry West (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984). Paraphrases are placed in ‘single quotes,’ whereas actual quotes appear in “quotation marks.” (more…)

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The following essay on Plato’s Theages is based on a transcript of a taped lecture, which I revised based on notes for two later lectures on the same dialogue that offered a more complete interpretation. I want to thank V.S. for the original transcript.

The Theages is a short Platonic dialogue that can be read as a response to Aristophanes’ Clouds. In both texts, Socrates is approached by a country gentleman to educate his son. In the Clouds, the father is insistent, the son reluctant. (more…)

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Author’s Note:

The following text is based on a transcript by V. S. of a lecture on Plato’s dialogue Theages. As usual, I have edited his transcript to remove excessive wordiness.

Unlike earlier transcripts in this series, I have also added new sections and rewitten others. (more…)

Jacques-Louis David, “The Death of Socrates,” detail

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Luca Signorelli, “Empedocles,” Orvieto Cathedral, 1502

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Part 2 of 2

Author’s Note:

The following text is a transcript by V. S. of a lecture on the presocratic background of Aristophanes’ Clouds. (more…)