The Sacrifice of Socrates

The Sacrifice of Socrates PDF

Author: Wm. Blake Tyrrell

Publisher: MSU Press

Published: 2012-10-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1609173384

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When Athenians suffered the shame of having lost a war from their own greed and foolishness, around 404 BCE the public’s blame was directed at Socrates, a man whose unique appearance and behavior, as well as his disapproval of the democracy, made him a ready target. Socrates was subsequently put on trial and sentenced to death. However, as René Girard has pointed out, no individual can be held responsible for a communal crisis. Plato’s Apology depicts Socrates as both the bane and the cure of Greek society, while his Crito shows a sacrificial Socrates, what some might consider a pharmakos figure, the human drug through whom Plato can dispense his philosophical remedies. With tremendous insight and satisfying complexity, this book analyzes classical texts through the lens of Girard’s mimetic mechanism.

Without the Least Tremor

Without the Least Tremor PDF

Author: M. Ross Romero, SJ

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2016-03-31

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 1438460201

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A reading of the death of Socrates as a self-sacrifice, with implications for ideas about suffering, wisdom, and the soul’s relationship to the body. In Without the Least Tremor, M. Ross Romero considers the death of Socrates as a sacrificial act rather than an execution, and analyzes the implications of such an understanding for the meaning of the Phaedo. Plato’s recounting of Socrates’s death fits many of the conventions of ancient Greek sacrificial ritual. Among these are the bath, the procession, Socrates’s appearance as a bull, the libation, the offering of a rooster to Asclepius, the treatment of Socrates’s body and corpse, and Phaedo’s memorialization of Socrates. Yet in a powerful moment, Socrates’s death deviates from a sacrifice as he drinks the pharmakon “without the least tremor.” Developing the themes of suffering and wisdom as they connect to this scene, Romero demonstrates how the embodied Socrates is setting forth an eikôn of the death of the philosopher. Drawing on comparisons with tragedy and comedy, he argues that Socrates’s death is more fittingly described as self-sacrifice than merely an execution or suicide. After considering the implications of these themes for the soul’s immortality and its relationship to the body, the book concludes with an exploration of the place of sacrifice within ethical life. M. Ross Romero, SJ is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Creighton University.

Socrates

Socrates PDF

Author: Paul Johnson

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2012-11-27

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0143122215

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“Spectacular . . . A delight to read.” —The Wall Street Journal From bestselling biographer and historian Paul Johnson, a brilliant portrait of Socrates, the founding father of philosophy In his highly acclaimed style, historian Paul Johnson masterfully disentangles centuries of scarce sources to offer a riveting account of Socrates, who is often hailed as the most important thinker of all time. Johnson provides a compelling picture of Athens in the fifth century BCE, and of the people Socrates reciprocally delighted in, as well as many enlightening and intimate analyses of specific aspects of his personality. Enchantingly portraying "the sheer power of Socrates's mind, and its unique combination of steel, subtlety, and frivolity," Paul Johnson captures the vast and intriguing life of a man who did nothing less than supply the basic apparatus of the human mind.

Sophistry and Political Philosophy

Sophistry and Political Philosophy PDF

Author: Robert C. Bartlett

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-09-12

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 022639428X

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It was Nietzsche who first identified the similarities between the radical sophistry of antiquity and the contemporary relativism that has come to characterize modern thought. The anti-foundationalism of contemporary thought can be said to have been born with the Sophists, and, of all the Sophists who have come down to us, Protagoras is the most famous and challenging of them. Robert Bartlett s masterful book is the first to examine Plato s Protagoras and Theaetetus together to uncover what lies at the heart of Protagoras teaching, both its moral and political components and its theoretical and epistemological groundings. His superb exegesis of these two dialogues allows one to see more clearly the power of radical relativism: its strengths and its deficiencies. Bartlett notes that political philosophy has been supplanted in the modern era either by the study of the history of political philosophy or by relativism. Although "Understanding Political Philosophy and Sophistry" can certainly be taken as an example of the former, it is much more than that. It seeks to uncover what Socrates, in responding to that teaching, begins to reveal of his own understanding and characteristic activity. It helps us begin to understand, in other words, the phenomenon of philosophy, not just as a system of thought, but as Socrates lived it."

The Ironic Defense of Socrates

The Ironic Defense of Socrates PDF

Author: David M. Leibowitz

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2010-07-12

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 1139490265

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This book offers a controversial interpretation of Plato's Apology of Socrates. By paying unusually close attention to what Socrates indicates about the meaning and extent of his irony, David Leibowitz arrives at unconventional conclusions about Socrates' teaching on virtue, politics, and the gods; the significance of his famous turn from natural philosophy to political philosophy; and the purpose of his insolent 'defense speech'. Leibowitz shows that Socrates is not just a colorful and quirky figure from the distant past but an unrivaled guide to the good life - the thoughtful life - who is as relevant today as in ancient Athens. On the basis of his unconventional understanding of the dialogue as a whole, and of the Delphic oracle story in particular, Leibowitz shows that the Apology is the key to the Platonic corpus, indicating how many of the disparate themes and apparently contradictory conclusions of the other dialogues fit together.

The Death of Socrates

The Death of Socrates PDF

Author: Emily R. Wilson

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9780674026834

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Socrates's death in 399 BCE has figured largely in our world, shaping how we think about heroism and celebrity, religion and family life, state control and individual freedom--many of the key coordinates of Western culture. Wilson analyzes the enormous and enduring power the trial and death of Socrates has exerted over the Western imagination.

Where Dreams May Come (2 vol. set)

Where Dreams May Come (2 vol. set) PDF

Author: Gil Renberg

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-06-01

Total Pages: 1130

ISBN-13: 9004330232

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In this book, Gil H. Renberg analyzes in detail the vast range of sources for “incubation,” dream-divination at a divinity’s sanctuary or shrine, beginning in Sumerian times but primarily focussing on the Greeks and Greco-Roman Egypt.

Socrates Meets Jesus

Socrates Meets Jesus PDF

Author: Peter Kreeft

Publisher: IVP

Published: 2002-01-10

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780830823383

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Peter Kreeft imagines what would happen if Socrates woke up today and enrolled in divinity school. Kreeft's new introduction for this edition highlights the inspirations for the book and the key questions of truth and faith it addresses.

Four Dialogues

Four Dialogues PDF

Author: Plato

Publisher: Wildside Press LLC

Published: 2009-05-01

Total Pages: 90

ISBN-13: 1434458164

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Included in this volume are "Euthyphro," "Apology," "Crito," and the Death Scene from "Phaedo." Translated by F.J. Church. Revisions and Introduction by Robert D. Cumming.