Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 2
Plato · en
When Schleiermacher says (Einleitung, p. 248), respecting the
_falsarius_ whom he supposes to have written the Theagês--"Damit
ist ihm begegnet, auf eine höchst verkehrte Art wunderbar
zusammenzurühren diese göttliche Schickung, und jenes persönliche
Vorgefühl welches dem Sokrates zur göttlichen Stimme ward".--I
contend that the mistake is chargeable to Schleiermacher himself, for
bisecting into two phenomena that which appears in the Apology as the
same phenomenon under two different names--[Greek: to\
daimo/nion]--[Greek: to\ tou= theou= sêmei=on]. Besides, to treat the
Dæmon as a mere "personal presentiment" of Sokrates, may be a true
view:--but it is the view of one who does not inhale the same religious
atmosphere as Sokrates, Plato, and Xenophon. It cannot therefore be
properly applied in explaining their sayings or doings. Kühner, who treats
the Theagês as not composed by Plato, grounds this belief partly on the
assertion, that the [Greek: daimo/nion] of Sokrates is described
therein as something peculiar to Sokrates; which, according to
Kühner, was the fiction of a subsequent time. By Sokrates and his
contemporaries (Kühner says) it was considered "non sibi soli tanquam
proprium quoddam beneficium a Diis tributum, sed commune sibi esse
cum cæteris hominibus" (pp. 20-21). I dissent entirely from this
view, which is contradicted by most of the passages noticed even by
Kühner himself. It is at variance with the Platonic Apology, as well
as with the Theætêtus (150 D), and Republic (vi. 496 C). Xenophon
does indeed try, in the first Chapter of the Memorabilia, as the
defender of Sokrates, to soften the _invidia_ against Sokrates,
by intimating that other persons had communications from the Gods as
well as he. But we see plainly, even from other passages of the
Memorabilia, that this was not the persuasion of Sokrates himself,
nor of his friends, nor of his enemies. They all considered it (as it
is depicted in the Theagês also) to be a special privilege and
revelation.
CHAPTER XVI.
ERASTÆ OR ANTERASTÆ--RIVALES.
The main subject of this short dialogue is--What is philosophy?
[Greek: ê( philosophi/a--to\ philosophei=n]. How are we to explain or
define it? What is its province and purport?
[Side-note: Erastæ--subject and persons of the
dialogue--dramatic introduction--interesting youths in the palæstra.]