Abstract
The social virtues are not discussed thematically in the Socratic writings of Plato and Xenophon, but they are on display everywhere. Taking Aristotle’s accounts of these virtues as a touchstone, this paper explores the portrait of Socrates as a model of good humour in Xenophon’s Symposium. While Xenophon is addressing the same issues as Aristotle, and shares some of his red lines, his conception of the ideal humourist and of virtue in general differs from Aristotle’s not only in detail but also in general conception. While he never actually violates the rules Aristotle sets down for eutrapelia, Xenophon’s Socrates strives not to avoid opposites but to combine them. It is the careful combining of the spoudaion and the geloion that redeems Xenophon’s otherwise outrageous portrait of Socratic humour. This suggests a broader paradigm in which virtuous behaviour is a combination of opposites rather than a middle path.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 602-619 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Classical Quarterly |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 5 Dec 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s), 2024.
Funding
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the conference ‘Where literature and philosophy meet: the virtues in Xenophon's writings’, held at Kibbutz Zubah, November 17–21, 2019, and at ‘Socratica V’, held at Rice University, July 11–14, 2022. I thank the audiences at both conferences for the kind reception and useful comments, and David Konstan and David M. Johnson for valuable feedback on the written text. I thank the Israel Science Foundation and the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies for support during the completion of this paper.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Israel Science Foundation | |
| Israel Institute for Advanced Studies |
Keywords
- Aristotle
- Philippus
- Socrates
- Symposium
- Xenophon
- ethics
- virtue