The trial and execution of Socrates

George, Peter (Translated with an Introduction By.)

ISBN 10: 0850670454 / ISBN 13: 9780850670455

Published by The Folio Society, 1972

About this Item

Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Complete with slipcase. Pages clean, clear, and bright throughout.

Seller Inventory # rev8175451028

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The trial and execution of Socrates
• Publisher: The Folio Society
• Publication Date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0850670454
• ISBN 13: 9780850670455
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good
• Weight: 660 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This 197 page book delves into the history of Socrates and concentrates on his trial and execution. From the Introduction: "Socrates has the characteristic distinction of the great man, of being not merely a man of impressive personality, but also of being a man in the right place at the right time for the full exploitation of his intellectual qualities. The evolution of his philosophical method was the product of a unique ability to absorb, synthesize, and finally redirect a bewildering variety of very diverse and dynamic ideas which were generated in a climate of intense moral, intellectual and political ferment. Socrates was well placed: Periclean Athens was the centre, not only of its own political empire, but of the whole cultural world of the Greeks, a world which stretched from Sicily to the Lebanon, and from the Nile to the Black Seas, which included within its boundaries every shade of political, religious, scientific and philosophical opinion and practice. Any thinker is bound both to learn from, and to react against his immediate predecessors, and Socrates was no exception. He rejected the scepticism which was an inevitable by-product of the emphasis on technique rather than truth. He opposed, and was opposed by thoroughgoing religious agnostics like Protagoras, and those who, like Thrasymachus, advocated success as the sole criterion of morality. Yet he learned and profited from the techniques of argument, and developed from these what Plato describes in the 'Phaedo' as his personal methodology. His insistence that moral concepts were susceptible to analysis and criticism, and his preoccupation with technique rather than with results, categorized Socrates as a sophist. What factors determine the precise timing of the final attack on Socrates must remain obscure. The ground had been well prepared and the outcome of the case was determined not by the initiative of the prosecutors, but by thirty years or more of maturing suspicion."