School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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Author: Black, Martin × Start date: 1960 × Type: Masters Research thesis × Subject: Philosophy ×

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    On politicizing philosophy : a reading of Plato's Apology of Socrates
    Black, Martin ( 2002)
    Our time is characterized both by a reliance upon institutions founded upon concepts of reason, and by widespread doubts that reason is the sovereign guide to individual and communal life. Our dilemmas may be clarified by an examination of the richer understanding of reason and the greater awareness of the limits of politics to be found in certain works of pre-Enlightenment thought. An exemplary text is Plato's Apology of Socrates. Socrates was charged and condemned by Athens for not believing in its gods and for teaching that disbelief to others. The Apology shows that the meaning of this is that Socrates. is on trial essentially for philosophizing: the genuinely philosophical search for answers to the most important questions is in tension with that commitment to communal standards which makes possible and can ennoble political life. Socrates' defence 0f the philosophical way of life thus constitutes an oblique examination of the possibility of enlightenment. Socrates pays tribute to the fact that political life furnishes the horizon within which the most important questions become visible, and he attempts, so far as possible, to secure what is decent in that life. However, he refuses to put philosophy in service of the city's ends, or to provide a political science at the cost of reducing philosophical to quotidian ends. However, to preserve philosophy Socrates must make at least partially visible the tension between philosophy and the city. He does not so much defend his philosophizing as articulate the aporias and deficiencies of the claims of the political community. The centre of this defence is the attempt to show that these claims are legitimized and can find fulfillment only in philosophy. The value of Plato's treatment lies in its delineation of the problem of the relation between reason and human affairs. It provides us with a model for correcting the modern tendency to nihilism from exaggerated expectations from politics, and for the intransigence required for genuine human excellence.