Just Finished Reading: Socrates – A Very Short Introduction by C C W Taylor

For those who are familiar with the philosophy of Socrates there is one huge problem – the fact that he either never wrote anything down, or at least nothing of his writings have survived. This makes any analysis of his work rather difficult as we must interpret his thoughts through other writers – in particular Plato. This problem is covered in a fair amount of detail in the first half of the book – which wasn’t too bad as its only 106 pages long. It did get a bit tedious though.

The second half of the book examined Socrates’ thought as expressed in the writings of Plato and analysed some of his more famous dialogues. Interestingly Taylor seemed less than impressed with his inability to actually reach any meaningful conclusions rather than merely ask particularly awkward questions. Lastly Taylor discussed the effect Socrates had on other/later philosophers as varied as the Stoics, the Cynics and, naturally, the Medieval Christian philosophers who all claimed him as one of their own. It seems that Socrates is all things to all men.

Although this is an interesting work I found it rather slow going and too focused on a particular type of navel gazing. The second part was far more interesting when it managed to move away from the admittedly important question of ‘which Socrates’. I think this is one for someone already familiar with Ancient Philosophy and who is looking to deepen their knowledge of a particular area. Reasonable rather than openly recommended I think.