the lost dialogue of Philosophocles - 2

If you missed Agonistes Part One, you may wish to read it by clicking the link below:

the lost dialogue of Philosophocles

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Agonistes Part Two (Asking the Right Questions)

Philosophocles: I fear that took longer than I had hoped. Thank you for tarrying, dear Agonistes. Pray let me catch my breath and we may continue.

Agonistes: Please, Philosophocles, take your ease and mop your brow.

Much better, I have my breath again that I may speak at length. I wish to learn what led you to follow Socrates so faithfully for these past years as opposed to some other teacher or Sophist, for there are many here in Athens. Has he bestowed on his disciples some secret truth which he does not share with his public interlocutors or the curious onlookers who stare at such a seemingly unremarkable and bad smelling man?

There are those who stare. You speak the truth in this even if a little unkindly. We generally try to stand upwind of him, for he does love his garlic. But he has shared wisdom in private with each of us in consideration of our learning and with concern for our advancement as worthy citizens of this great city. But his greatest wisdom he dispenses in questions to challenge each of us to answer well just as he does publicly.

Well spoken, Agonistes. This is truly a worthy answer and perhaps a beginning of some small wisdom which I may have missed in my initial encounter with Socrates. Forming questions to challenge his students to answer well does seem noble. And yet, it seemed to me when he questioned Meno and others the day I listened to him that they rarely answered well. Can you give me an example of a question that awakened virtue in your patient soul?

I have heard my master ask, 'Therefore, in a word, all that the soul undertakes and endures, if directed by wisdom ends in happiness, but if directed by ignorance, it ends in the opposite?' This seemed to me the epitome of wisdom and I meditate upon its truth daily.

Is that the same wisdom that Socrates claims ignorance of my dear Agonistes? I see now that Socrates plays the fool well. And this is what I wish to touch on further in our debate that I may better understand his insistent ploy of confessing ignorance whenever questioned on some weighty topic. It causes overconfidence in his interlocutors, does it not?

He does it to put his questioners at ease that they may reason themselves to wisdom. It is nothing so crass as a ploy.

Tut, tut, Agonistes, it seems to me that he does it to ambush them, much like a spider traps a fly in his web if a spinner and, if not, leaping upon his prey from where he lies in wait. When I observed him befuddle both Meno and Anytus, it appeared his true goal was to make the knowledge they sought impossible to know rather than placing it within their grasp.

I do not see it so, Philosophocles. Socrates uses questions to help his interlocutors to see the many things they have failed to consider before reaching a conclusion. In this way he helps them eliminate the ignorance that believes it knows what it does not.

Well spoken again, Agonistes. Your confidence is growing. But it is precisely in leading them down a path of his own choosing that he ambushes them into believing that they did not know what they assuredly thought they did. Let me give you an example and correct me if you remember differently than I. You attended Socrates when he, Meno and Anytus spoke together, did you not?

Even so.

When Socrates asked Meno to define virtue he replied with a list of virtuous characteristics. Do you recall how Socrates replied?

I fear, I cannot.

Then attend and learn. Socrates told him he had expected the definition of one thing and instead of defining it Meno gave him an exhaustive list. He asked the wrong question and then blamed Meno for giving him a bad answer. More to the point, the hours spent on all the questions he asked and all of the answers poor Meno and Anytus gave him were utterly wasted for they led both of them to ignorance rather than truth. It is not until the conclusion of their debate that Socrates reveals that he truly believed virtue cannot be defined and so nullified his original question altogether. Do you recall his words, dear Agonistes?

Dear me, I do not.

That virtue only appears to be present in those of us as a gift from the gods. In other words, some of us are born wise and other's fools. So why do the god-gifted wise entertain pupils if those who were born fools can never be otherwise? And why do those same students seek after tutors, teachers and masters? Surely if they were born wise they have no need of a master to show them the way.

Why do you follow Socrates, Agonistes? Do you believe you were born a fool and hope that by following Socrates you might one day ape his wisdom? That is what Socrates implied Meno was doing with his own master Gorgias.

But having conversed with you, I see that though you are both naive and earnest, you are certainly no fool.

These men here in the quarry who earn their food with the sweat of their brows and who take their rest when the sun sets a tremble with aches and fear of the sunrise when they must do it all again, are they fools as well? Or does their perseverance in their difficult labors ennoble them? They shall never sup at a wealthy man's table.

When a mother's time comes and she labors to deliver her child, she cannot choose to delay or say to herself, it would be better to deliver my child on another day. Does her suffering the like of which no man has known make her a fool for conceiving?

Forgive me my indignation, Agonistes, but you must see that Socrates is mistaken in the very questions he asks and therefore the conclusions he pronounces. Even the gods dare not define virtue as source and inspiration for all wisdom or of all admirable qualities. Each honors and inspires a single virtue, the storm bringer Zeus hospitality, Pallas Athena wisdom, Ares war, Hephaestus industry and so on. The Greeks have different virtues than the Spartans, and the Spartans different from the Romans.

You philosophers are Athena's precious children just as we quarry men are Hephaestus's.

The question is not, What is virtue, for every people, every gender, all who are poor or rich, any who is slave or free either serves the common good or makes war upon it. The question is why do some serve and others resist. In this manner you can identify those who have chosen of their free will wisdom and those who have elected to rebel against it. The wise seek balance and fools spurn it. The world is a cruel place, Agonistes, even as your name attests, for the fools outnumber the wise. But a world in which some are elected wise and others are condemned to be fools is an anathema.

The day is drawing to a close and I have to free this poor block from its bondage. Meet me again at the dawning for I wish to speak with you further.

I will.

Fellow quarrymen, attend my voice, bring the bullocks that we may wrest this stone free. Drive them brothers, drive them! Hi, hi, hi!

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End Notes...

1) Sophists were paid teachers of philosophy and rhetoric (the art of persuasion). Eventually the name became associated with specious reasoning. To this day the word sophistry is used to describe reasoning used to deceive.

2) The quotes - 'Therefore, in a word, all that the soul undertakes and endures, if directed by wisdom ends in happiness, but if directed by ignorance, it ends in the opposite?' and 'That virtue only appears to be present in those of us as a gift from the gods.' both appear in Plato's socratic dialogue Meno.

3) Gorgias may have been the most famous of the Sophist's in Socrates' and Philosophocles' day. He was famed for his rhetorical devices which gave him immediate success as a teacher.

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Click on the link below to read part 3

the lost dialogue of Philosophocles - 3