Socrates is one of the most famous Greek philosophers. This is of course because of his appearance as a character in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Or perhaps because of the many plays featuring him as the main character written by Plato.
A less read source on Socrates’ life is the biography written by Xenophon. I found it in my college library (CSULB) and a college library is a great source of archaic tomes that no one reads ;)
Anyway dear readers, what I remember most from the account of Socrates by Xenophon (a book that the head of the philosophy department said he’d never read) was the different presentation of the same key fact.
I’m being a bit obscure there. See in both Plato and Xenophon there is an account of Socrates going to the oracle of Delphi and being told that he is the wisest man in the world. But what is different is what follows from there.
Plato presents it as a moment of revelation. If he is the wisest man, and he knows nothing than all knowledge is suspect and it is Socrates role to question all of these specious foundations. Socrates is often referred to as a gadfly, annoying society by questioning the unquestionable in order to provoke thought.
Xenophon’s Socrates is more blustery (as I remember it’s been a couple of decades) He says he is the wisest and this gives him the…
