Socrates & King

A Quaker perspective.

A review of a play by Ahmen Etman about Socrates’ final days. Yet another text to find. Looks good. The second scene is about Socrates’ trial. Andocides has switched sides: despite taking Xanthula’s money, he now speaks on behalf of the prosecutors. It is Lysias, whose speech on love is discussed in Plato’s Phaedrus, who [...]

As the saying goes, “Socrates died for your academic freedom.” How about the freedom to think for oneself? To question authority? Makes me feel even worse for being such a slothful blogger. (The Committee to Protect Journalist’s) “10 Worst Countries to be a Blogger” also identifies a number of countries in the Middle East and [...]

Olympia Snowe – our gal from Sparta! “It’s my ethnic heritage, Spartan side, that continues to fight,” she said. Snowe’s NY Times Op-Ed about Senator Specter’s defection from the Republican party is here.

Does your race or social class matter when it comes to civil disobedience? As a white activist, civil disobedience has a whole different meaning. Many white activists have grown up without fear or distrust of police. If I am arrested, I am not worried that I will be treated unfairly because of my race. If [...]

Paul Levinson beat me to it. Can’t wait to read this book! Amazon blurb from Publisher’s Weekly: In this light, engaging time-travel yarn, Levinson (The Silk Code) ponders the problem of saving someone who refuses to be saved, in this case Socrates, the Athenian philosopher condemned to death in a shameful moment for democracy. Inspired [...]

I dreamt about Socrates the other night.