The City On Trial

Socrates’ Indictment of the Gentleman in Xenophon’s Oeconomicus

Bibliographic Data

ID6107952
AuthorsLaurence D Nee (corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume26
Issue2
Pages246-270
Publication date2009-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolis The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0142-257X • E-ISSN: 2051-2996
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/20512996-90000153
OpenAlexW2032405855
LanguageEN
Citations received26

Xenophon’s Oeconomicus presents the boldest possible response to the city’s charge that Socrates corrupted the young: the city itself, not Socrates, is guilty of this charge. The city’s teaching about what constitutes a noble human being cannot be reconciled with the good of the human being as such; it actually opposes this good. While the would-be gentleman’s desire to be noble shapes his understanding of household management, it fails to bring him the god-like self sufficiency he seeks. Socrates’ critique of the perfect gentleman’s education of his wife demonstrates why the sacrifices made for the household and the gods do not benefit those who seek to be noble. Over the course of the dialogue, images of the Socratic way of life emerge. By revealing the nature of philosophy and its relationship to the good and noble things which the city extols, this dialogue teaches its readers why the Socratic way of life benefits human beings

Art · Charge (physics · Epistemology · Indictment · Literature · Political science · SOCRATES · Socratic method · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Law · Philosophy

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