On the birthday of Socrates, what can be said about the philosopher whom nobody has read? | The Indian Express

On the birthday of Socrates, what can be said about the philosopher whom nobody has read? | The Indian Express

Written by Vijay Tankha |Updated: May 6, 2019 8:33:45 am

On the birthday of Socrates, what can be said about the philosopher whom nobody has read?

Refashioning the oracular imperative — know thyself — the real Socratic question turns out to be not about him but about ourselves.

Socrates had no interest in natural science or metaphysics (unconcerned with fantasies of the afterlife), epistemology (his model of knowledge was based on everyday occupations), or theology (he neither spoke on behalf of the gods nor about them).

Though probably the best known philosopher in the Western tradition, Socrates’ fame is based not on his work, as he wrote nothing, but on the monument of his life as reconstructed by his disciples, mainly Plato. The Socratic question is: How real is the character Plato sketches in his numerous dialogues? Plato’s Apology, reporting the defence (Apologia) made by Socrates at his trial, shows him to be the first public intellectual rather than an absent minded stargazer.