The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World by Daniel J. Boorstin Page A
Authors: Daniel J. Boorstin
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wary of taking himself too seriously. “May we not conceive each of us living beings to be a puppet of the Gods,” observes Plato’s Athenian Stranger in
The Laws,
“either their plaything only, or created with a purpose—which of the two we cannot certainly know.”
Far from being a textual exercise, the pursuit of philosophy, the love of wisdom—for Plato as for his teacher Socrates—was an athletic activity of minds in converse. The Dialogue as a written work seems to have been an invention of Plato, in whose hands this new literary form flourished. Plato is reputed to have written dramas, which he destroyed. And his dialogues are full of drama. His Socratic dialogues, as Werner Jaeger has observed, revealed “his desire to show the philosopher in the dramatic instant of seeking and finding, and to make the doubt and the conflict visible.” And the dialogue survived as a literary form for Seekers. Though less appropriate to Aristotle’s way of seeking, Aristotle’s own dialogues (most written before the death of Plato) were applauded. They survive only in fragments. The form was to be exploited by Plutarch and Lucian, and the Latin dialogue provided Cicero with the vehicle for some of his most durable ideas.
Plato is rare among the great figures of ancient Greek thought in that the whole of his works seem to have been preserved. Socrates (in Plato’s
Phaedrus
) explained that “lovers of wisdom, or philosophers” were worthy of their name only if they were able to defend their ideas “by spoken arguments, which leave their writings poor in comparison.” “He who cannot rise above his own compilations and compositions, which he has been long patching and piecing, adding some and taking away some, may be justly called poet or speechmaker or law-maker.” But not a philosopher.
7
Plato’s Other-World of Ideas
In early life Plato had fancied himself in a political career, but he was turned off by the sordid politics of Athens in the era of the Peloponnesian Wars. He saw the Thirty Tyrants, including his relatives, try to involve his friend, the aged Socrates, in their crimes. When Socrates, “the most upright man of that day,” was sent to his death on fabricated charges, Plato determined to “withdraw from any connection with the abuses of the time.” And so he stifled his “strong impulse towards political life.”
What we know of Plato’s sallies into politics leaves us doubly glad that he saved himself from a longer career of frustration. His naive Sicilian adventure proved him a poor judge of people and of political opportunities. Still, he was not pipe-dreaming when he had thought of a political career. For his distinguished family and the Athenian tradition of civic participation would easily have offered him opportunities for leadership. But we have little reason to believe that he could have been another Pericles, or that he had the conspiratorial talents even to be an Alcibiades.
Plato claimed to trace his ancestry back to the old kings of Athens, to friends of the legendary Solon, and finally to the god Poseidon. His stepfather, in whose house he was raised, was a prominent supporter of Pericles. But Plato himself had seen more than enough of Athenian politics to make him critical of “democratic” ways. When only eighteen he seems to have been a listener, if not actually a disciple, of Socrates.
After Socrates was put to death, his friends, under suspicion by the regime, may have moved for a while to nearby Megara. At this time Plato may have taken something like a grand tour of southern Italy, Cyrene, neighboring Africa and Egypt. Some of his remarks in
The Laws
on Egyptian customs, games, art, and music have the authentic ring of the observer. Before he first visited Sicily, he had already arrived at his familiar axiom that “there will be no cessation of evils for the sons of men, till either those who are pursuing a right and true philosophy receive sovereign power in the
The Laws,
“either their plaything only, or created with a purpose—which of the two we cannot certainly know.”
Far from being a textual exercise, the pursuit of philosophy, the love of wisdom—for Plato as for his teacher Socrates—was an athletic activity of minds in converse. The Dialogue as a written work seems to have been an invention of Plato, in whose hands this new literary form flourished. Plato is reputed to have written dramas, which he destroyed. And his dialogues are full of drama. His Socratic dialogues, as Werner Jaeger has observed, revealed “his desire to show the philosopher in the dramatic instant of seeking and finding, and to make the doubt and the conflict visible.” And the dialogue survived as a literary form for Seekers. Though less appropriate to Aristotle’s way of seeking, Aristotle’s own dialogues (most written before the death of Plato) were applauded. They survive only in fragments. The form was to be exploited by Plutarch and Lucian, and the Latin dialogue provided Cicero with the vehicle for some of his most durable ideas.
Plato is rare among the great figures of ancient Greek thought in that the whole of his works seem to have been preserved. Socrates (in Plato’s
Phaedrus
) explained that “lovers of wisdom, or philosophers” were worthy of their name only if they were able to defend their ideas “by spoken arguments, which leave their writings poor in comparison.” “He who cannot rise above his own compilations and compositions, which he has been long patching and piecing, adding some and taking away some, may be justly called poet or speechmaker or law-maker.” But not a philosopher.
7
Plato’s Other-World of Ideas
In early life Plato had fancied himself in a political career, but he was turned off by the sordid politics of Athens in the era of the Peloponnesian Wars. He saw the Thirty Tyrants, including his relatives, try to involve his friend, the aged Socrates, in their crimes. When Socrates, “the most upright man of that day,” was sent to his death on fabricated charges, Plato determined to “withdraw from any connection with the abuses of the time.” And so he stifled his “strong impulse towards political life.”
What we know of Plato’s sallies into politics leaves us doubly glad that he saved himself from a longer career of frustration. His naive Sicilian adventure proved him a poor judge of people and of political opportunities. Still, he was not pipe-dreaming when he had thought of a political career. For his distinguished family and the Athenian tradition of civic participation would easily have offered him opportunities for leadership. But we have little reason to believe that he could have been another Pericles, or that he had the conspiratorial talents even to be an Alcibiades.
Plato claimed to trace his ancestry back to the old kings of Athens, to friends of the legendary Solon, and finally to the god Poseidon. His stepfather, in whose house he was raised, was a prominent supporter of Pericles. But Plato himself had seen more than enough of Athenian politics to make him critical of “democratic” ways. When only eighteen he seems to have been a listener, if not actually a disciple, of Socrates.
After Socrates was put to death, his friends, under suspicion by the regime, may have moved for a while to nearby Megara. At this time Plato may have taken something like a grand tour of southern Italy, Cyrene, neighboring Africa and Egypt. Some of his remarks in
The Laws
on Egyptian customs, games, art, and music have the authentic ring of the observer. Before he first visited Sicily, he had already arrived at his familiar axiom that “there will be no cessation of evils for the sons of men, till either those who are pursuing a right and true philosophy receive sovereign power in the
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