Mark L. McPherran

Introducing a new god : Socrates and his daimonion

... since other animals also dream, it may be concluded that dreams are not sent by god — Here is evidence: the power of foreseeing the future and of having vivid dreams is found in quite ordinary people, which implies that god does not send their dreams; but merely that all those whose physical temperament is ... garrulous and melancholic, see sights of all descriptions ... they just chance to have visions resembling objective facts (ODS 463bl2-19). ... the minds of such people are not given to deep thought, but are derelict, or totally vacant .... (ODS 464a23-5).

Virtue, Luck, and Choice at the End of the Republic

This essay considers the famous choice of lives in the Myth of Er. It investigates the tensions between the thought that leading a just life has postmortem rewards and the apparent role of various elements in the Myth, such as luck, that would seem to distance individuals from moral responsibility for their character and their lives after death. The author develops the idea that the nature of the choice of lives in the Myth of Er is impacted by luck, providence, and constraints imposed by individuals’ previous life experiences and deliberative capacities in a way that seems to undermine their consequentialist reasons for being just. Nonetheless, Plato’s intention seems to be to leave readers with the impression that they are able to make morally significant choices in life and that those who act justly do enjoy better results than those who act unjustly. The essay concludes that Plato leaves the problems raised by the Myth of Er unresolved, but that the Myth serves well to clarify the nature of the problems it exposes.

Socrates, Plato, Erôs and liberal education

This paper focuses on the educational method—the elenchos—of Plato’s Socrates, arguing, against some prominent interpretations, that it is love, both eros and philia, that is the key that links Socrates’ philosophy with his education. This analysis, of course, raises some difficult questions regarding the relationship between teacher and student. The interpretation is contrasted with scholarly readings that emphasise the significance of Socrates’ religion; and it is put into the context of problems of twenty‐first century pedagogy.

Santas, Socrates, and Induction

The publication of Gerasimos Santas’ book Socrates in 1979 helped to initiate the resurgence of the study of Socrates that continues from that time through to the present day.1 Prior to its appearance, for example, there existed only quite general studies of Socratic thought, ranging from A. E. Taylor’s venerable 1932 Socrates to Norman Gulley’s 1968 The Philosophy of Socrates. Even subsequent to the publication of Santas’ book, the next major work on Socrates to appear—Gregory Vlastos’ Socrates: Ironist and Moral Philosopher (1990)—was still a decade away.

Socrates and Aesop in Plato’s Phaedo

I begin with a famous scene from the end of the Apology. Starting off at Apology 40c, Socrates attempts to console the ‘friendly jurors’ that death is not to be feared on the grounds that it is good. It is good because at death, the soul either enters a state akin to eternal dreamless sleep or, if certain ta legomena are true, death results in Socrates’ soul migrating into a Hades, where his soul can interrogate the great and famous dead forever, without fear of any further fines or death penalties. Death appears to result in Socrates returning to an underworld agora for no divine revelations, but merely the rewards of more elenctic philosophizing. He will find there, at least, a more high-class set of interlocutors, including Orpheus, Museus, Hesiod and Homer, to name a few. This outcome, he affirms, would be an ‘inconceivable happiness’ (Apology 41c). Moreover, apart from applying his method to the claims of such gigantic figures, he also imagines having pleasurable conversations with others who are just as famous, thereby allowing him to compare his unjust verdict and fate with the various similar injustices these men have suffered; for example, Ajax and Palamedes (Ap 41a–b). So, then, let us take this last observation to establish the likelihood that in his last days in prison, Socrates was in a mood to compare his fate to those famous figures from the past who suffered in ways comparable to himself. What, then, does it allow us to say about the opening pages of

Plato's Phaedo

• In the Euthyphro, we find a number of philosophical theses. • Several proposals were made concerning the nature of piety. – That which is loved by the gods. – That which is loved by all the gods. – That part of justice which is concerned with attending to the gods. • The support offered by Euthyphro for the first two items was authority. • Socrates tried to argue on rational grounds against the theses. • He mainly provided counter-examples to them. • No philosophical thesis was endorsed, and no theory was developed.