Socrates in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes (Audio))

Strathern, Paul

3.53

1,135 ratings by Goodreads

9781433267949: Socrates in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes (Audio))

ISBN 10: 1433267942 ISBN 13: 9781433267949

Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, 2012

[Read by Simon Vance]

In Socrates in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Socrates' life and ideas and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. -- Just a century after it had begun, philosophy entered its greatest age with the appearance of Socrates, who spent so much of his time talking about philosophy on the streets of Athens that he never got around to writing anything down. His method of aggressive questioning, called dialectic, was used to cut through the palaver of his adversaries and arrive at the truth. Socrates saw the world as not accessible to our senses, only to thought. Finally charged with impiety and the corruption of youth, he was tried and sentenced to death--and ended his life by drinking the judicial hemlock.

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From the Back Cover:

Just a century after it had begun, philosophy entered its greatest age with the appearance of Socrates, who spent so much of his time talking about philosophy on the streets of Athens that he never got around to writing anything down. His method of aggressive questioning, called dialectic, was the forerunner of logic; he used it to cut through the twaddle of his adversaries and arrive at the truth. Rather than questioning the world, he believed, we would be better off questioning ourselves. Socrates placed philosophy on the sound basis of reason. He saw the world as not accessible to our senses, only to thought. Finally charged with impiety and the corruption of youth, he was tried and sentenced to death - and ended his life by drinking the judicial hemlock. In Socrates in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Socrates' life and ideas, and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world. The book also includes selections from Socrates' observations; a brief list of suggested reading for those who wish to push further; and chronologies that place Socrates within his own age and in the broader scheme of philosophy.

About the Author:

Paul Strathern earned a degree in philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, and has lectured in philosophy and mathematics. The author of many nonfiction books and of articles for numerous publications, he has also written several novels and has won the Somerset Maugham Prize. He lives and writes in London.

Simon Vance is an award-winning actor and an AudioFile Golden Voice with over forty Earphones Awards. He has won thirteen prestigious Audie Awards and was Booklist's very first Voice of Choice in 2008. He has narrated more than eight hundred audiobooks over almost thirty years, beginning when he was a radio newsreader for the BBC in London.

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