Socrates on deception, thievery and violence: towards situational ethics?

Andrej Kalaš; František Škvrnda

doi:10.5817/GLB2019-2-5

Socrates on deception, thievery and violence: towards situational ethics?

Roč.24,č.2(2019)

Andrej Kalaš František Škvrnda

https://doi.org/10.5817/GLB2019-2-5

Trvalý odkaz (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/141754

PDF (angličtina)

Abstrakt

The following paper examines special groups of testimony from the Socratic literature on Socrates' attitude towards unethical forms of behaviour. The first group of texts consists of reflections on the problem of deception and the dilemma of whether it is always right to speak the truth. The next group reflects how various writers of Socratica (Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plato, Antisthenes) interpreted the moral value of thievery. The third group describes Socratic argumentation with regard to violent modes of conduct, such as slavery and beating. It reveals that our extant ancient sources depict Socrates' positive evaluation of certain forms of lying, stealing, swearing and even beating and that Socrates was a moral relativist in a sense, judging in light of the situational context, which constitutes the moral value of action.

Klíčová slova:
socratic question; socratic literature; situational ethics; deception; thievery; violence

Stránky:
67–77

Reference

Adler, A. (Ed.). (1928–1935). Suidae Lexicon. Leipzig: Teubner.

Allen, T. W. (Ed.). (1931). Homeri Ilias (Vol. I). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Burnet, J. (Ed.). (1900–1907). Platonis Opera. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Dover, K. J. (Ed.). (1968). Aristophanes: Nubes. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Kaibel, G. (Ed.). (1890). Athenaei Naucratitae deipnosophistarum libri xv (Vol. III). Leipzig: Teubner.

Lamb, W. R. M. (Transl.). (1925). Plato: Lysis, Symposium, Gorgias (Loeb Classical Library, 166). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Long, H. S. (Ed.). (1964). Diogenis Laertii vitae philosophorum. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Marchant, E. C. (Ed.). (1921). Xenophontis opera omnia (Vol. II). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Betegh, G. (2013). Socrate et Archélaos dans les Nuées. In A. Laks & R. Saetta Cottone (Eds.), Comédie et Philosophie: Socrate et les "présocratiques" dans les Nuées d'Aristophane (pp. 87–106). Paris: Editions Rue d'Ulm.

Boys-Stones, G. (2007). Physiognomy and Ancient Psychological Theory. In S. Swain (Ed.), Seeing the Face, Seeing the Soul: Polemon's Physiognomy from Classical Antiquity to Medieval Islam (pp. 19–124). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brickhouse, T. C., & Smith, N. D. (2013). Socratic Moral Psychology. In J. Bussanich, & N. D. Smith (Eds.), The Bloomsbury Companion to Socrates (pp. 185–209). London: Bloomsbury.

Cerri, G. (2012). Le Nuvole di Aristofane e la realtà storica di Socrate. In F. Perusino & M. Colantonio (Eds.), La commedia greca e la storia (pp. 151–194). Pisa: EDIZIONI ETS.

Chroust, A.-H. (1957). Socrates. The Man and the Myth. The Two Socratic Apologies of Xenophon. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Dorion, L.-A. (2011). The Rise and Fall of the Socratic Problem. In Morrison, D. (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Socrates (pp. 1–23). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Dorion, L.-A. (2018). Comparative Exegesis and the Socratic Problem. In G. Danzig, D. Johnson, D. Morrison (Eds.), Plato and Xenophon. Comparative Studies (pp. 55–70). Leiden: Brill.

Edmunds, L. (1986). Aristophanes' Socrates. Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, 1, 209–230.

Fowler, H. N. (1926). Cratylus. Parmenides. Greater Hippias. Lesser Hippias. London: Harvard University Press.

Friedländer, P. (1964). Plato: The Dialogues. First Period (Transl. P. Meyerhoff). London: Pantheon Books.

Guthrie, W. K. C. (1971). Socrates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Huffman, C. A. (2012). Aristoxenus' Life of Socrates. In C. A. Huffman (Ed.), Aristoxenus of Tarentum: Discussion (pp. 251–281). New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

Irwin, T. (2007). The Development of Ethics. A Historical and Critical Study. Volume I: From Socrates to the Reformation. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kahn, Ch. (1979). The Art and Thought of Heraclitus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kahn, Ch. (1983). Drama and Dialectic in Plato's Gorgias. Oxford Studies in Classical Philosophy, 1, 75–122.

Kock, T. (1880). Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner.

Leibowitz, D. M. (2010). The Ironic Defense of Socrates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Montiglio, S. (2011). From Villain to Hero – Odysseus in the Ancient Thought. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

Montuori, M. (1981). Socrates. Physiology of a Myth. Amsterdam: J. C. Gieben.

Moore, Ch. (2013). Chaerephon the Socratic. Phoenix, 67(3–4), 284–300. | DOI 10.7834/phoenix.67.3-4.0284

Moore, Ch. (2015). Socrates and Self-Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Murray, A. T. (1928). The Iliad. London: Harvard University Press.

Porubjak, M. (2018). Socrates as the Paradigmatic Figure of Practical Philosophy. ΑΙΘΗΡ, 5, 50–65.

Prior, W. J. (1991). Virtue and Knowledge. An Introduction to Ancient Greek Ethics. New York: Routledge.

Stavru, A. (2013). The Present State of Socratic Studies: An Overview. In F. de Luise, & A. Stavru (Eds.), Socratica III: Studies on Socrates, the Socratics, and the Ancient Socratic Literature (pp. 11–26). Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag.

Stavru, A. & Rossetti, L. (2010). Introduction. In: Stavru, A., & Rossetti, L. (Eds.), Socratica 2008. Studies in Ancient Socratic Literature (pp. 11–55). Bari: Levante.

Vlastos, G. (1991). Socrates. Ironist and Moral Philosopher. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Walcot, P. (1977). Odysseus and the Art of Lying. Ancient Society, 8, 1–19.

Waterfield, R. (2013). The Quest for the Historical Socrates. In J. Bussanich, & N. D. Smith (Eds.), The Bloomsbury Companion to Socrates (pp. 1–19). London: Bloomsbury.

Wehrli, F. (1945). Die Schule des Aristoteles. Aristoxenos. Basle: Benno Schwabe & Co.

Metriky