> "So, while the Heideggerians think they are leaping into the nothing,
they
> end up having to think something and usually this is just low-grade 20th
> century gnosticism (a muddle of arcane terminology) with the usual
> Antichrist pose to justify their own petty immorality. The measure of the
> true philosopher will always be Socrates, who spoke plainly and sought
> above all to live a moral life."
>
> Aha. This is apparently shaping up as a contest between vapid,
obscurantist
> immoralists and staunch, upright moralists who of course speak the
language of
> common sense and adhere rigorously to the tenets of reason.
Not at all. Socrates was charged with impiety and corrupting the youth.
Hardly an upright moralist. The irony was he was trying to be even more
moral than the upright moralists. Not beyond good and evil, but good above
and beyond the call of duty. A hero in many ways.
Socrates spoke not the language of common sense for its own sake but
engaged in creating aporias using nothing but the language of common sense
itself. In this way, in the aporia, the dimension beyond the common was
indicated. The way into this dimension was open to anyone willing to speak
plainly, open to anyone saying and affirming exactly what he believed to be
true at every turn of the dialogue.
The tenets of reason were not known in advance. They were sought. The
arche, the aitia, the ousia, the logos. They were open to question.
> Maybe Socrates was, among other things, also a moralistic
pain-in-the-neck?
> Reading Xenophon does in fact give me such an inkling.
Another reason perhaps for calling him Saint Socrates.
A moral gadfly? Maybe the piety of thinking is incomplete without the moral
life.
Chris Morrissey
More C Communications Inc.
a Microsoft Solution Provider
http://www.moreC.com voice or fax 604.877.7731
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