The second volume of the Harvard Classics is broken up into 3 authors - Plato, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. Plato's work includes the three essays: The Apology, Phaedo and Crito. I'll get to Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius in my next post, but I don't know much about the authors in this volume. Yes, I've heard of Plato, but other than him coming after Socrates in chronological order I didn't know much. I had never heard of Epictetus until that point, but after this volume, he became my new friend. And as for Marcus Aurelius - I didn't know much about him other than he was a Roman Emperor (Thanks Sid Meier!)
Plato's The Apology is his version of Socrates defense speech after he was charged with "corrupting the young." The Apology is from the word apologia, which is to speak in defense of a position or cause. Kids today would say "sorry not sorry", but this was infinitely more eloquent. The Apology covers the trial, from accusation to cross-examination in his defense. It was hard for me to read so I had to go back over passages multiple times. And I tried to keep in mind that Plato was writing very lovingly about his former mentor/hero so I'm sure there was a big degree of idolization. What I got out of The Apology was that Socrates knew, I think, that he was going to be put to death because the jury had presupposed his guilt. It was his final stand.
The next dialogue from Plato was the Phaedo, set the day before Socrates was going to be put to death. Phaedo was the name of one of Socrates' students, who was supposedly with Socrates while he was on his death bed. I vaguely understood what was going on and was kicking myself for not taking enough philosophy in college, or at least understanding what the hell I was reading. I was miffed at myself because if this was how I was going to feel a few times per each volume, this was going to be a torturous exercise. With a little help from outside resources, it now made sense. Socrates' main point was his belief in the immortality of the soul. Now things started to make sense. Not that I fully understood what was going on, but could at least have an idea of what the hell I was reading!
I don't know about immortality of the soul, but here, 2400 years later, we still read and discuss the man and his work. That's as close as immortality as you can get - I would think.
Crito was the third and final dialogue by Plato, and chronologically within Plato's dialogues, it actually comes after Phaedo despite this being set in prison before Socrates was on his deathbed. Crito was Socrates' good friend, and told Socrates that tomorrow he'll be executed, and he had means to break Socrates out of prison and finance his means of escape. After all, what sort of good rich friend would Crito be if he didn't offer to break out his friend?
Socrates response was that despite him having a massive injustice done to him, it wasn't good to do a further injustice by escaping from prison. My response to this was that Socrates was choosing martyrdom instead of a virtually effortless escape, and was a bit pissed at Socrates for "being a dick." Crito had the means to get him out of Dodge, as it were, and all it would have taken is a "yes" and he wouldn't have died. But he was in his late 60s, so perhaps he realized that it was better to go out as a martyr than a fugitive. Socrates discussed the "contract" that he had with Athens - he lived there, raised children, etc - and thus, he entered into an implied contract with the city since he had reaped the benefits of living in Athens. Athens was the parent, and Socrates was the child and had to take his punishment. Still, I was conflicted.
Next up: Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.
Plato's The Apology is his version of Socrates defense speech after he was charged with "corrupting the young." The Apology is from the word apologia, which is to speak in defense of a position or cause. Kids today would say "sorry not sorry", but this was infinitely more eloquent. The Apology covers the trial, from accusation to cross-examination in his defense. It was hard for me to read so I had to go back over passages multiple times. And I tried to keep in mind that Plato was writing very lovingly about his former mentor/hero so I'm sure there was a big degree of idolization. What I got out of The Apology was that Socrates knew, I think, that he was going to be put to death because the jury had presupposed his guilt. It was his final stand.
The next dialogue from Plato was the Phaedo, set the day before Socrates was going to be put to death. Phaedo was the name of one of Socrates' students, who was supposedly with Socrates while he was on his death bed. I vaguely understood what was going on and was kicking myself for not taking enough philosophy in college, or at least understanding what the hell I was reading. I was miffed at myself because if this was how I was going to feel a few times per each volume, this was going to be a torturous exercise. With a little help from outside resources, it now made sense. Socrates' main point was his belief in the immortality of the soul. Now things started to make sense. Not that I fully understood what was going on, but could at least have an idea of what the hell I was reading!
I don't know about immortality of the soul, but here, 2400 years later, we still read and discuss the man and his work. That's as close as immortality as you can get - I would think.
Crito was the third and final dialogue by Plato, and chronologically within Plato's dialogues, it actually comes after Phaedo despite this being set in prison before Socrates was on his deathbed. Crito was Socrates' good friend, and told Socrates that tomorrow he'll be executed, and he had means to break Socrates out of prison and finance his means of escape. After all, what sort of good rich friend would Crito be if he didn't offer to break out his friend?
Socrates response was that despite him having a massive injustice done to him, it wasn't good to do a further injustice by escaping from prison. My response to this was that Socrates was choosing martyrdom instead of a virtually effortless escape, and was a bit pissed at Socrates for "being a dick." Crito had the means to get him out of Dodge, as it were, and all it would have taken is a "yes" and he wouldn't have died. But he was in his late 60s, so perhaps he realized that it was better to go out as a martyr than a fugitive. Socrates discussed the "contract" that he had with Athens - he lived there, raised children, etc - and thus, he entered into an implied contract with the city since he had reaped the benefits of living in Athens. Athens was the parent, and Socrates was the child and had to take his punishment. Still, I was conflicted.
Next up: Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.
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