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On a similar note: because Socrates never wrote anything down, it's entirely possible everything attributed to him was made up.
by Avshalom 4y ago
On a similar note: because Socrates never wrote anything down, it's entirely possible everything attributed to him was made up.
- virissimo 4y agoPossible, but improbable, since some attributions (approximately) agree across independent sources like Plato, Xenophon, Aristophanes, etc...
- Avshalom 4y agoFan fiction manages to agree about made up stuff across thousands of writers. Fictional canons in general easily produce (approximate) consistency across writers.
- hunterb123 4y agoIt isn't fan fiction, generally fans don't talk directly with the creators of their process, for years on end. Socrates pupils listened and discussed his ideas with him directly and very in-depth. Instead of him writing down statements to be misinterpreted, he instilled his philosophy into many people through direct conversation.
- Avshalom 4y agoI mean don't get me wrong I'm just having fun, I'm not some socrates-truther but "generally fans don't talk directly with the creators of their process, for years on end" have you met fans? Hell yesterday the entirety of Tumblr decided to invent a fake Scorsese film with memes and slash/fic and fanart and arguments about it's place in his canon. They probably produced more in a day than was written about Socrates in a century.
- hunterb123 4y agoIt's not about how much you produce, it's about how well you knew the reasoning behind the thought. By talking with the person directly you're able to understand that reasoning much better vs interpretation.
- tshaddox 4y agoEspecially when the huge amount of clear contradictions are ignored. I don’t know if that’s the case with Greek philosophy, but it’s certainly the case with some other historical writings.
- cratermoon 4y agoEspecially once headcanon is established.
- wrp 4y agoAlso, secretaries who recorded speeches in shorthand were a well established institution is ancient Greece and Rome. Since Socrates was a celebrity teacher, it's likely his every speech (after becoming famous) was taken down verbatim.
- jasonhansel 4y agoWell, Plato and Xenophon both present Socrates' Apology speech, and their versions are almost completely different. So at least one of them is made-up, rather than being a verbatim copy; probably both of them are (to some extent) fictitious.
- aap_ 4y agoPlato's Socratic dialogs are certainly not meant to be taken as a transcription of dialogs that actually happened. Socrates is used as a literary device. It's quite likely that earlier dialogs are more in line with Socrates' actual character but the later ones are what you might call fan fiction for sure. For a completely different account of Socrates see Clouds by Aristophanes. I find Socrates a very fascinating character and Plato's dialogs very entertaining to read. He is such an expert troll (no wonder they sentenced him to death).