Review of Bettany Hughes’ new book, The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens, and the Search for the Good Life:
"Hughes, presents Socrates as very human, very much a man of the people, equally at home in a carpenter’s workshop as he was in the symposia of the rich and powerful. He treated all equally in his search for the truth and his message was that ‘there can be no good, even in a democracy, if each individual is not as good as he can possibly be’. This argument, that all that mattered was care for one’s soul, is, she points out, possibly the one thing that the young democracy could not rightly accept. It was, in effect, a rejection of the people in the name of the individual and conscience. Only Socrates was wise - he tells us in Plato’s Apology (an account of his defence during the trial) - because he knew he was ignorant. Everyone else was simply ignorant.
"Hughes, presents Socrates as very human, very much a man of the people, equally at home in a carpenter’s workshop as he was in the symposia of the rich and powerful. He treated all equally in his search for the truth and his message was that ‘there can be no good, even in a democracy, if each individual is not as good as he can possibly be’. This argument, that all that mattered was care for one’s soul, is, she points out, possibly the one thing that the young democracy could not rightly accept. It was, in effect, a rejection of the people in the name of the individual and conscience. Only Socrates was wise - he tells us in Plato’s Apology (an account of his defence during the trial) - because he knew he was ignorant. Everyone else was simply ignorant.
Hughes urges us to keep the Socratic flame alight, ‘above all to remember ta erotica - the “things of love”, the things that drive us to pursue the good’. She paints him as a very relevant reminder today that ‘eudaimonia (a kind of good karma, realising all your potential as a human being) is more important than jewels, baths, designer clothes, warships, dogma’. She endorses his critique of ‘the pursuit of plenty’ and ‘mindless materialism’, arguing that his key challenge is to suggest that it is ‘us’, not ‘them’, who can make things better. She even flirts with casting him as a bit of an anti-imperialist, a bit of a proto-feminist. In her telling, the city takes the criticism and the man is defended. She makes Socrates sound very like Jesus, ceaselessly haranguing the Pharisees. She even has Socrates echoing modern-day concerns about thoughtless consumerism making us miserable."
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