An imitation or parody of Pericles’ funeral oration from Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War“. The speaker gives a sketchy and biased rendering of the Persian Wars and the Peloponnesian War, glossing over defeats of the Athenians and exaggerating their merits. There are noble sentiments of devotion to one’s country and honor, but also smug national and racial superiority. The funeral speech exhorts the sons of the departed to follow […]
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“Alcibiades I and II” by Plato
Alcibiades, son of Cleinias, nephew of Pericles, was an ambitious statesman of noble birth. Socrates counseled him to seek wisdom and virtue first, so that he may know, firstly, what is good and fitting for himself and for the nation, and secondly, whether he is qualified to rule. Know Thyself “Consider: if some one were to say to the eye, ‘See thyself,’ as you might say to a man, ‘Know […]
Read more“Hippias Minor” by Plato
Socrates argues in this dialogue that the man who lies (or does any sort of evil) voluntarily is better than he who does so involuntarily, because the former has greater power and knowledge. This paradoxical view is consistent with Plato’s assertion in “Laws” that nobody commits injustice voluntarily. Man desires the good and happiness, but injustice renders the one who commits it evil and miserable, the opposite of what he […]
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What is Beauty? Socrates doesn’t give a definition of beauty, though he does drop some hints at an approximation of the idea, but instead, by the method of elimination, he exhibits what is not beauty, and exposes with abundant sarcasm the ignorance and conceit of him who claims to know the beautiful. “Beautiful things are difficult”, indeed, perhaps because Beauty cannot be defined due to the limitation of language itself. […]
Read more“Cleitophon” by Plato
The Limitation of Socrates Cleitophon gives Socrates a dose of his own medicine. Socrates has exhorted men to devote themselves to virtue and pursue knowledge of justice. What is the next step? What is the art which deals with the virtue of the soul? “Socrates, while you are of untold value to a man who has not been exhorted, to him who has been exhorted you are almost an actual […]
Read more“Parmenides” by Plato
The Being Or the Not-Being of One A discourse on the relations among being, not-being, whole, part, one, many, same, other, rest and motion. Of all twenty-four Plato’s dialogues included in the Western Canon, this is the most abstract and mind-boggling to me, partly due to my lack of training in abstract reasoning, and partly due to a lack of clear definition of each abstract term, the root cause of which […]
Read more“Cratylus” by Plato
There are two intertwining themes in this dialogue. On the one hand, Socrates discourses on the origins and mutations of words, and whether names exist by convention or by nature; otoh, since names express the essence of the things signified, he delves into the names of Gods and heroes, making a long and elaborate parody of those who posit motion as the true attribute of well-being, only to deliver the […]
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