Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;eddiespin, post: 2785655, member: 4920&quot;]Herberto, thank you. Just a little elaboration and tuck-pointing if you will in an area I&#039;m academically-credentialled in, although by no means a scholar...</p><p><br /></p><p>Just in elaboration on this point. It&#039;s true, I believe, this is probably the major reason Socrates was convicted by the Athenian Democracy. One might find that somewhat counterintuitive. That is to say, Athens being a democracy, as opposed to monarchy or aristocracy. However, Plato elucidated the reason well, right out of the gate, in the opening dialogue in <i>The Republic </i>(circa, 411BC), wherein he brought to light the essential political problem in a pure democracy, that being, tyranny by the majority. A pure democracy is tyranny by the majority of the minority and minority viewpoints, by sheer numbers, or, i.e., popular vote. What made this conviction particularly necessary was that Athens and Athena were one, in the Greek mind. That is to say, the Greek mind had no concept of &quot;church and state,&quot; as we do, today. When Socrates attacked these Greek gods and goddesses as but comic-book superheroes, to the Greek mind, he was attacking the body politic, as well.</p><p><br /></p><p>As an aside, the real thing that did Socrates in was, he was what we&#039;d call, today, a &quot;gadfly.&quot; He had a way of biting you. He&#039;d start you out in a discussion on a position, then he&#039;d take you around, full-circle, ending you up advocating the exact opposite position you had advocated at the start. That pissed a lot of these citizens off, as it made fools of them. This is also how he introduced philosophy, i.e., thinking, to his students. As such, corruption of the youth was the other charge brought by the state.</p><p><br /></p><p>I hope you know by now what I&#039;m going to say, here. Socrates <i>was</i> philosophy. That was, in fact, the reason he had to go. He caused the citizens to philosophize, i.e., to question the prevailing belief system, i.e., to think. And, in a pure democracy, you do that, you go, Jackson, I don&#039;t care who you are.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in