Why Socrates Died

Author : Robin Waterfield
Publisher : Emblem Editions
ISBN 13 : 0771088639
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Why Socrates Died written by Robin Waterfield and published by Emblem Editions. This book was released on 2010-05-04 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revisionist account of the most famous trial and execution in Western civilization — one with great resonance for modern society In the spring of 399 BCE, the elderly philosopher Socrates stood trial in his native Athens. The court was packed, and after being found guilty by his peers, Socrates died by drinking a cup of poison hemlock, his execution a defining moment in ancient civilization. Yet time has transmuted the facts into a fable. Aware of these myths, Robin Waterfield has examined the actual Greek sources, presenting a new Socrates, not an atheist or guru of a weird sect, but a deeply moral thinker, whose convictions stood in stark relief to those of his former disciple, Alcibiades, the hawkish and self-serving military leader. Refusing to surrender his beliefs even in the face of death, Socrates, as Waterfield reveals, was determined to save a morally decayed country that was tearing itself apart. Why Socrates Died is then not only a powerful revisionist book, but a work whose insights translate clearly from ancient Athens to the present day.

Author : Robin Waterfield
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393072908
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths written by Robin Waterfield and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2009-06-08 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revisionist account of the most famous trial and execution in Western civilization—one with great resonance for American society today. Socrates’ trial and death together form an iconic moment in Western civilization. In 399 BCE, the great philosopher stood before an Athenian jury on serious charges: impiety and “subverting the young men of the city.” The picture we have of it—created by his immediate followers, Plato and Xenophon, and perpetuated in countless works of literature and art ever since—is of a noble man putting his lips to the poisonous cup of hemlock, sentenced to death in a fit of folly by an ancient Athenian democracy already fighting for its own life. But an icon, an image, is not reality, and time has transmuted so many of the facts into historical fable. Aware of these myths, Robin Waterfield has examined the actual Greek sources and presents here a new Socrates, in which he separates the legend from the man himself. As Waterfield recounts the story, the charges of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens were already enough for a death sentence, but the prosecutors accused him of more. They asserted that Socrates was not just an atheist and the guru of a weird sect but also an elitist who surrounded himself with politically undesirable characters and had mentored those responsible for defeat in the Peloponnesian War. Their claims were not without substance, for Plato and Xenophon, among Socrates’ closest companions, had idolized him as students, while Alcibiades, the hawkish and notoriously self-serving general, had brought Athens to the brink of military disaster. In fact, as Waterfield perceptively shows through an engrossing historical narrative, there was a great deal of truth, from an Athenian perspective, in these charges. The trial was, in part, a response to troubled times—Athens was reeling from a catastrophic war and undergoing turbulent social changes—and Socrates’ companions were unfortunately direct representatives of these troubles. Their words and actions, judiciously sifted and placed in proper context, not only serve to portray Socrates as a flesh-and-blood historical figure but also provide a good lens through which to explore both the trial and the general history of the period. Ultimately, the study of these events and principal figures allows us to finally strip away the veneer that has for so long denied us glimpses of the real Socrates. Why Socrates Died is an illuminating, authoritative account of not only one of the defining periods of Western civilization but also of one of its most defining figures.

Author :
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 1565430654
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.55/5 ( download)

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Download or read book How Socrates Died written by and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Plato
Publisher : Lulu.com
ISBN 13 : 0359861083
Total Pages : 122 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Trial and Death of Socrates written by Plato and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2019-08-17 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Trial and Death of Socrates includes the four Platonic dialogues Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo.

Author : Emily R. Wilson
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674026834
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.37/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Death of Socrates written by Emily R. Wilson and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Socrates's death in 399 BCE has figured largely in our world, shaping how we think about heroism and celebrity, religion and family life, state control and individual freedom--many of the key coordinates of Western culture. Wilson analyzes the enormous and enduring power the trial and death of Socrates has exerted over the Western imagination.

Author : Robin Waterfield
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 0771088523
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.20/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Why Socrates Died written by Robin Waterfield and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2010-05-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revisionist account of the most famous trial and execution in Western civilization — one with great resonance for modern society In the spring of 399 BCE, the elderly philosopher Socrates stood trial in his native Athens. The court was packed, and after being found guilty by his peers, Socrates died by drinking a cup of poison hemlock, his execution a defining moment in ancient civilization. Yet time has transmuted the facts into a fable. Aware of these myths, Robin Waterfield has examined the actual Greek sources, presenting a new Socrates, not an atheist or guru of a weird sect, but a deeply moral thinker, whose convictions stood in stark relief to those of his former disciple, Alcibiades, the hawkish and self-serving military leader. Refusing to surrender his beliefs even in the face of death, Socrates, as Waterfield reveals, was determined to save a morally decayed country that was tearing itself apart. Why Socrates Died is then not only a powerful revisionist book, but a work whose insights translate clearly from ancient Athens to the present day.

Author : Plato
Publisher : Barnes & Noble Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780760762004
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Trial and Death of Socrates written by Plato and published by Barnes & Noble Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The European philosophical tradition. . .consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." -- Alfred North Whitehead The dialogues of Plato stand alongside the Bible and Homer's Iliad and Odyssey as foundational texts of Western civilization. The works of Plato collected under the title The Trial and Death of Socrates have been particularly influential. This is because they provide both an excellent point of entry into Plato's vast philosophy and a vivid portrait of Plato's mentor, Socrates - one of the most uncompromising intellectuals in the pantheon of human history. It is predominantly through Plato's account in these works of the words and actions of Socrates during his trial and execution for impiety that the latter's nobility and profound integrity have become known to succeeding generations.

Author : Paul Cartledge
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 113948849X
Total Pages : 194 pages
Book Rating : 4.95/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice written by Paul Cartledge and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-28 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ancient Greece was a place of tremendous political experiment and innovation, and it was here too that the first serious political thinkers emerged. Using carefully selected case-studies, in this book Professor Cartledge investigates the dynamic interaction between ancient Greek political thought and practice from early historic times to the early Roman Empire. Of concern throughout are three major issues: first, the relationship of political thought and practice; second, the relevance of class and status to explaining political behaviour and thinking; third, democracy - its invention, development and expansion, and extinction, prior to its recent resuscitation and even apotheosis. In addition, monarchy in various forms and at different periods and the peculiar political structures of Sparta are treated in detail over a chronological range extending from Homer to Plutarch. The book provides an introduction to the topic for all students and non-specialists who appreciate the continued relevance of ancient Greece to political theory and practice today.

Author : I. F. Stone
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385260326
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.29/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Trial of Socrates written by I. F. Stone and published by Anchor. This book was released on 1989-02-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In unraveling the long-hidden issues of the most famous free speech case of all time, noted author I.F. Stone ranges far and wide over Roman as well as Greek history to present an engaging and rewarding introduction to classical antiquity and its relevance to society today. The New York Times called this national best-seller an "intellectual thriller."

Author : Plato
Publisher : Courier Corporation
ISBN 13 : 0486111342
Total Pages : 129 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Trial and Death of Socrates written by Plato and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among the most important and influential philosophical works in Western thought: the dialogues entitled Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo. Translations by distinguished classical scholar Benjamin Jowett.