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Six Questions Of Socrates
 
 
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Six Questions Of Socrates [Hardcover]

Christopher Phillips (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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From Publishers Weekly

In his first book, Socrates Cafe, Phillips charmingly recounted how he roamed the country starting philosophical discussion groups inspired by the Socratic method of questioning. Here, Phillips ventures to many lands, including Greece, Japan, South Korea and Mexico, and stages dialogues with people from many backgrounds: Navajo, Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, Catholic. He discusses six questions, each in a separate chapter: What is virtue? What is moderation? What is justice? What is good? What is courage? What is piety? His hope is to "discover an array of timely answers" that may help us achieve "human excellence." The author's own ruminations, and an eclectic selection of published ideas from Tom Sawyer to Thich Nhat Hanh, supplement the 20 or so dialogues. In a final chapter, Phillips argues that the Socratic "pursuit of the virtuous life" may provide a way of countering the "downward [moral] spiral" he sees prevailing in today's world. Phillips's idealism remains refreshing, and the book is valuable for its inclusion of non-European points of view. But as in Socrates Cafe, the philosophy often feels superficial. For example, a discussion in Mexico of "What is justice?" turns into a catalogue of government injustices with nothing more to say philosophically than, "We have to make sure that justice serves all of us in an impartial way." Such insights are obviously not without value, especially for those new to philosophizing, but they make this very much a book for beginners.
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From Booklist

Socrates stayed at home, but his modern disciple Phillips prefers globetrotting. And, as he travels the world, Phillips challenges ordinary people with the central questions of Socrates' philosophy: What is virtue? Moderation? Justice? Courage? In this highly accessible account of his travels, Phillips invites readers to sit in on his far-flung dialogues, debating the nature of virtue with librarians and junior-high students in Athens, pondering the meaning of moderation among neo-Confucianists near Seoul, and contemplating the character of courage with retired firefighters and corporate executives in New Jersey. Alive with the passions of ordinary people from a dozen cultures, these colloquies dramatize the universality of Socrates' deeply humanizing concerns. Professional philosophers may sniff at the unevenness of the dialogues and frequent lapses in intellectual rigor. And even nonspecialists may complain about the frequency with which Phillips interrupts his communal philosophizing with digressive political monologues. But most readers will applaud Phillips for once again making philosophy a living enterprise beyond the lecture hall and the faculty lounge. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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"I don't think that virtue-what we call arete-exists anymore.'' Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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6 Reviews
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3.7 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars False Depiction of Socratic and Greek Thought, Jun 19 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Six Questions Of Socrates (Hardcover)
Because I have lectured in universities about Greek thought, participated in a mock trial of Socrates, and often said "We live in Aristotle's world," my wife thought I would be delighted with Christopher Phillips's "Six Questions of Socrates." When she handed me the book, I smiled and thanked her. She departed, knowing that I would become lost in reading.

Unfortunately, because author Phillips and publisher W.W. Norton appear to have not read what the Greeks thought, this book is a complete disappointment.

For example:
Aristotle was the student of Plato, who was the student of Socrates. Those whom we today call "the ancient Greeks" include all three.

In an astonishing and unnecessary ad hominem personal attack on two scholars, on page 31 Phillips writes: "But what both Kitto and Pirsig fail to grasp is that for the ancient Greeks, there was no distinction of any sort between duty toward others and duty toward self."

To the contrary, in Book 3 of his "Politics," Aristotle thoroughly discusses the difference between the duty of a citizen to others and to himself. Aristotle concludes that the duties are not the same and cannot be the same, except in an unrealizable ideal world. We can aspire to such unity but cannot expect to achieve it.

I have been writing a book about this distinction so when I read Phillips's false claim it struck me as a notable error.

This book is inaccurate in much of what it claims about Greek thought, and it is not always accurate about Socrates, either.

The book is not a total failure, but it is a complete disappointment. If one is seeking to learn philsophy, history, ethics, or politics, one's time is better spent elsewhere.

Skip it.

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5.0 out of 5 stars a fine coalescing of past and present to gain higher virtue, July 15 2004
This review is from: Six Questions Of Socrates (Hardcover)
As a professor in Greece, I can attest to the amazing scholarship of this book. Each section is like the fruits of a firstrate dissertation, only one that is intelligible and usable and relevant to a broad audience. Most of all, Mr. Phillips succeeds in accurately recounting the travails of the fall of the Golden Age and showing how similar patterns repeat themselves today, and how we can learn that it is by no means an inevitable or foregone conclusion that we must repeat the same mistakes. A noble and accessible tome, all in all, and one that we should almost feel an obligation to consider as we try to become more virtuous.
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5.0 out of 5 stars audacious, perspicacious, outrageous, contagious, July 10 2004
This review is from: Six Questions Of Socrates (Hardcover)
I guess sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. I picked up this baby for the cool cover, started thumbing through it, and before I knew it, I'd passed the entire day at the bookstore reading it from cover to cover -- then bought it and went home and started reading it again. I took Philosophy 101 about a million years ago and hated it, "thanks" to a dull professor with a PhD in philosophy who was no more a philosopher than any Tom Dick or Harry (and less of one, really, because this guy couldn't speak without using highfalutin jargon in a nasal voice; but he had no critical thinking acumen at all). Phillips' clear writing and thinking is the furthest thing from simplistic; he really pushes you, as he pushes himself, to discover your inner cosmos, to engage in a type of introspection that makes life a thrilling journey that we should take together, recognizing our common ground as fellow humans. Check out his great dialogues with kids in particular. They are superb, as are his own philosophical meanderings.
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