Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of additional notes
- Introduction
- 1 Socratic irony
- 2 Socrates contra Socrates in Plato
- 3 The evidence of Aristotle and Xenophon
- 4 Elenchus and mathematics
- 5 Does Socrates cheat?
- 6 Socratic piety
- 7 Socrates' rejection of retaliation
- 8 Happiness and virtue in Socrates' moral theory
- Epilogue: Felix Socrates
- Additional notes
- Bibliography
- Index of passages cited
- Index of names in Plato and Xenophon
- Index of modern scholars
- Index of Greek words
Epilogue: Felix Socrates
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of additional notes
- Introduction
- 1 Socratic irony
- 2 Socrates contra Socrates in Plato
- 3 The evidence of Aristotle and Xenophon
- 4 Elenchus and mathematics
- 5 Does Socrates cheat?
- 6 Socratic piety
- 7 Socrates' rejection of retaliation
- 8 Happiness and virtue in Socrates' moral theory
- Epilogue: Felix Socrates
- Additional notes
- Bibliography
- Index of passages cited
- Index of names in Plato and Xenophon
- Index of modern scholars
- Index of Greek words
Summary
To single out one of the many values in our life, elevating it so far above all the rest that we would choose it at any cost, is one of the many things that have been called “romanticism” in the modern era. Its typical expression there is sexual love. To the hero of a romance winning a particular woman's love may be worth more than are all the other things he covets put together. He may gamble all else for it. But it has other expressions too, not always tagged “romanticism.” What else but this is “Give me liberty or give me death”? In the great religions of the world the same attitude may be found, though it has never been so described:
TI Matthew 13: 44–6: Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
What answers to romanticism in Greek antiquity is the heroic code.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- SocratesIronist and Moral Philosopher, pp. 233 - 235Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991