Socrates Against Athens: Philosophy on Trial

ISBN-13: 9780415926546 / Angielski / Miękka / 2001 / 266 str.

James A. Colaiaco

Opis

As an essential companion to Plato's Apology and Crito this book provides valuable historical and cultural context for our understanding of the trial of Socrates. The complexity and significance of the trial is illuminated through discussion of such important elements as the nature of Athenian democracy, the polis ideal, Greek shame culture, Athenian religion, civil disobedience, and Socrates' rejection of politics. Colaiaco's approach is unique because he does justice both to Socrates and to Athens by demonstrating their individual strengths and weaknesses - and ultimately, their tragic incompatibility. Another highlight is that he provides a comprehensive picture of this conflict - essentially Socrates' radical challenge to traditional Athenian values - within the necessary historical and cultural context so that readers are better able to grasp the complexity and significance inherent to this trial.

Recenzje

"...[Colaiaco] does a commendable job throughout of providing both historical and cultural context for the lay reader attempting to read the Apology and the Crito." -- Velvet Yates, University of California, Irvine
"Socrates Against Athens is a welcome addition to the literature on Socrates' trial and imprisonment. Written in a clear, engaging style, this study can be read profitably by anyone who is interested in the conflict between some of Athens' citizens and her most famous philosopher." -- Thomas C. Brickhouse, John Franklin East Professor of the Humanities, Lynchburg College

Spis treści

; 1. Introduction: A Tragic Confrontation; 2. Setting the Stage for the Trial; Preliminaries; Historicity of the Apology; 3. Socrates and Rhetoric; Athens-City of Speech; Socrates' Opening Remarks: Dismantling Forensic Rhetoric; 4. Socrates Confronts His Old Accusers; Socrates and Aristophanes' Clouds; Socrates Denies He is a Teacher of Natural Science; Socrates Denies He is a Sophist; 5. Socrates' Radical Philosophic Mission; The Delphic Oracle; Socrates Examines the Politicians, Poets, and Craftsmen; The Mask of Ignorance; Solving the Riddle of the Oracle; 6. The Athenian Polis Ideal; The Funeral Oration of Pericles: Apotheosis of the Polis; Homeric Shame Culture; Democracy Appropriates Homer; The Polis and the Individual; 7. Socrates Confronts His Present Accusers: The Interrogation of Meletus; Corrupting the Young; The Polis as Teacher; Athenian Polis Religion; Socrates and Impiety; 8. Socrates Brings the Philosophic Mission into the Court; Death Bears No Sting; Caring for One's Soul; Stepping Up the Offense; The Gadfly; 9. The Politics of an Unpolitical Man; A Private Rather than a Public Station; Socrates' Divine Voice; Defender of Justice; 10. The Trial Concludes: Socrates Condemned; The Corruption Charge Revisited; Rejecting an Appeal for Sympathy; Proposing a Counterpenalty; Truth Fails to Persuade; Parting Words to Enemies; Parting Words to Friends; 11. Socrates and Civil Disobedience: The Crito; Socrates and Antigone; Socrates Dismisses the Shame Culture; Justice and the Soul; Socrates Argues for the Laws; The Skillful Ironist; Fulfilling the Will of a Benevolent God; 12. Conclusion: A Conflict Unresolved; Notes; Selected Bibliography; Index

O autorze

James A. Colaiaco is a Master Teacher in the General Studies Program of the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies. He is the author of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Apostle of Militant Nonviolence (1993) and James Fitzjames Stephen and the Crisis of Victorian Thought (1983).