The Middle Road of Classical Political Philosophy

Socrates' Dialogues with Aristippus in Xenophon's Memorabilia

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6401889
AutoresKenneth C Blanchard (autor de correspondencia)
Año1994
Volumen56
Número4
Páginas671-696
Fecha de publicación1994-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0034670500019124
OpenAlexW1998230845
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas24
Referencias citadas7

This article examines the contrast between philosophy and sophism in Xenophon's Memorabilia, focusing chiefly on the two dialogues between Socrates and Aristippus. In two crucial respects, Socrates and the sophist appear as opposites. He accepts what the sophist rejects: the obligations and restraints imposed by the city's laws; and he rejects what the sophist accepts: the vulgar notion that everyone knows what the good things are. In the first dialogue, Socrates defends the self-discipline proper to citizen-soldiers against Aristippus' complete rejection of political responsibility. In the second, he points to the substitution of the beautiful for the good as the proper object of philosophical investigation, hi both dialogues, Socrates walks a middle road: he is more political than the sophist, but less so than the politician. Yet he proves to be close to the politician qua philosopher than he is qua citizen

Art · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Object (grammar · Political science · Politics · SOCRATES · Socratic method · Sophist · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Law · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought