Robbins Library Notes

At left: Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates, 1787

Carlin Romano (University of Pennsylvania) writes a very interesting piece for the Chronicle of Higher Education — “Socrates in the 21st Century: Is the endlessly examined life still worth a look?“

Romano, in the course of this article, reviews some recent scholarship on Socrates. In the process, he asks some interesting questions about not only the person of Socrates, but also his legacy and relevance, and about the way we teach philosophy.

I realize that many believe that anyone or anything in philosophy prior to Descartes is “old” and therefore “bad” or “irrelevant.” Nonetheless, I ask these readers to keep an open mind and step outside of modern and contemporary philosophy for a few minutes, and perhaps give Socrates another look.