Socrates (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Gregory Vlastos
- First Published: 1991
- Type of Work: Philosophy
- Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy
- Subjects: Language or languages, Philosophy or philosophers, Art or artists, Linguistics or linguists, Religion, Metaphysics, Birds, Morality or morals, Mathematics or mathematicians, Greece or Greek people
Socrates’ atopía (his “strangeness,” his “absurdity,” even his “outrageousness”) has struck many readers of Plato’s dialogues. When pleading his case before the Athenian criminal court, Socrates asserts that he has no knowledge, no wisdom, neither great nor small (Apology 21B-D). His all-too-willing-to-be-seduced student Alcibiades claims that Socrates’ atopía is such that one could search among his contemporaries and predecessors yet never come close to what Socrates is himself or what the things he says really mean (Symposium 221D)....
[The entire page is 2050 words long]
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