I enjoyed this post.
Executing wicked and evil old men is a very bad idea. If you are a wicked and evil young man, what makes you think you will get any better?
The absolute worst travesty of the trial of Socrates was his completely asinine argument about why he wasn’t corrupting the youth*. Never mind that the charge was dumb, but that doesn’t excuse his argument from being utterly laughable; I’m actually almost convinced that Socrates was deliberately trolling when he made it (assuming Plato’s account is accurate etc etc).
- For the uninitiated, the gist of the argument is essentially that only a mentally ill person can intentionally take action which harms themselves. Corrupting the youth would harm society, and thus indirectly harm Socrates. Therefore, since he is clearly not mentally ill, he was not intentionally corrupting the youth. And if it wasn’t intentional, why are they punishing him and not re-educating him?
You’re welcome. And if Alexander the Great really interests you, which apparently he does, check out Renault’s Fire from Heaven (about Alexander’s life before he was King) The Persian Boy (about Alexander conquering Persia) and Funeral Games (about the struggles of the Diadochi, Alexander’s surviving generals, for supremacy after his death).
Also The Mask of Apollo, which bridges the period between the life of Socrates and the life of Alexander (Plato is a major character, and young Alexander makes a cameo appearance at the end).
Hmm. If he’s acquitted . . . well, I guess they’ll have to dig him up. :o
Acquitting him is pretty easy in Ohio
Corrupting the Youth:
“Your honor, I’m not aware of any crime called or solely defined by ‘corrupting the youth’. Seriously, what does that even mean?”
“Good point, charge dropped.”
Treason against Athens:
“Your honor, Athens is not in our jurisdiction, we have no ability nor reason to try this man for treason against a state that this judicial system isn’t even a part of. Also, Athens itself is not a sovereign city-state anymore, rather being a city in a nation-state, so it’s kind of moot.”
“Hmm… good point. Charge dropped.”
Blaspheming against the Gods:
“Seriously, your honor? Separation of church and state. I can guarantee there’s no law he’s violating.”
“… Huh. Charge dropped. Who the hell even accepted this case anyway? Tell the intern he’s fired.”
And, call in a Voodoo priest . . .
Weekend At Bernie’s 3: Socratezy Summer!
I just requested the library for a book, “Conversations of Socrates” by Xenophon. BrainGlutton, I will get your book later on but for right now, I just want to read some primary source books written by Xenophon and Plato.
Awesome.
I also recommend checking out the Loeb Classical Library. Some of the translations are quite old-timey (or were, anyways, in the editions I read ten years ago), but that’s part of the charm. You get the original Greek (or Latin) text on the right, and an English translation on the left. Jolly good fun.
Be careful with relying on Xenophon, at least WRT to Socrates’ philosophy. Xenophon was a friend and admirer of Socrates, but he was a plain soldier and no philosopher, and he paints such a portrait of him that at least one historian has remarked, “He never would have been condemned if he had been like that.”
Bertrand Russell in his A History of Western Philosophy wrote of Xenophon and Socrates (going from memory, here): “It has been said that Xenophon’s accounts of what Socrates are reliable, because he had not the wit to think of anything different. This is a most invalid line of argument. A stupid man’s account of what a clever man says is always inaccurate, because he subconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. I would rather be represented by my worst enemy among philosophers than by a friend ignorant of philosophy.”
Oh sh*t, I got an 86 on the essay. That brought my grade down all the way from a 95 to a 90 for this quarter bringing my final average down from a 95 to a 93. Really upset right now. On top of that (this is irrelevant), I sucked on the math test today - only an 83 bringing my average in that class from a 97.188 to a 94.821 (I’m not too upset about this).
Well, you can kiss your chances of getting into MIT goodbye.
Are you actually serious? :eek:
Yes, I am.
Dewey Finn
Director of Admissions
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Admissions Office
77 Massachusetts Ave, Room 10-100
Cambridge, MA 02139
No, it’s Matt McGann. http://web.mit.edu/officesdir/411411.shtml
Do you think I post here under my real name?
Well you said Dewey Finn above the address. Are you really Matt McGann? :eek:
Yes. Here’s my homepage.
Haha, very funny. :rolleyes:
I just get worried because you never know. You could have been an admissions officer. I was just really worried because my grades did drop.