When
Bertrand Russell wrote the History of
Western Philosophy, he could still write that Socrates ‘was unquestionably
a well-known figure in Athens, since Aristophanes caricatured him in The Clouds.’ (p. 89) This changed with
Popper, who in The Open Society and its
Enemies promoted the principle that ‘Plato’s evidence is the only
first-rate evidence available to us’: ‘Burnet has applied this principle to
Xenophon; but we must apply it also to Aristophanes, whose evidence was
rejected by Socrates himself, in the Apology’.
Popper goes on to say: ‘The Socrates of the Apology
very impressively repeats three times (18b-c; 19c-d; 23d) that he is not
interested in natural philosophy.’ Reflecting on the use made by Burnet and
Taylor [Taylor was the only important disciple and adherent of Burnet] of
Aristophanes’ evidence, Popper says: ‘They hold that Aristophanes’ jests would
be pointless if Socrates had not been a natural philosopher. But it so happens
that Socrates (I always assume, with Burnet and Taylor, that the Apology is historical) foresaw this very
argument. In his apology, he warned his judges against this very interpretation
of Aristophanes, insisting most earnestly that he had neither little nor much
to do with natural philosophy, but simply nothing at all. Socrates felt as if
he were fighting against shadows in this matter, against the shadows of the
past; but we can now say that he was also fighting the shadows of the future.’
(Op. cit. n. 56 on Chapter 10, pp.
307-8)
Socrates
says in the Apology that he has no
part in ‘knowledge’ which the natural philosophers claim to possess. Distancing
himself from the caricature of ‘a Socrates’ (Sȏkratȇ tina), whom the Athenians saw in the comedy of Aristophanes
(en tȇi Aristophanous kȏmȏidiai) ‘carried
there around (ekei peripheromenon)
and saying that he walks on air (phaskonta
te aerobatein), and talking a lot of other nonsense (kai allȇn pollȇn phluarian pluarounta), about things of which I do
not know either much or little (hȏn egȏ
ouden oute mega oute mikron peri epaiȏ)’, Socrates insists: ‘not that I
mean to speak disparagingly of this kind of knowledge (kai ouch hȏs atimazȏn legȏ tȇn toiautȇn epistȇmȇn), if someone has
wisdom concerning such things (ei tis
peri tȏn toioutȏn sophos estin) … But I have no part in these things (alla gar emoi toutȏn ouden metestin).’
(19c2-8).
With this in mind, let us look at The Clouds. Strepsiades, the ‘Twister’,
as his name says, enters the courtyard in front of Socrates’ ‘Thinkery’ (phrontistȇrion). He points at men he can
see there looking in the earth and asks why they are doing it (ti pot’ es tȇn gȇn blepousi houtoii).
The disciple of Socrates, who let Strepsiades in, answers: ‘They search into
the things down under the earth’ (zȇtousi
houtoi ta kata gȇs). – Str.: ‘And what are doing these men, bending right
down?’ – Disc.: ‘They gape about in Erebos under the Tartaros.’ – Str. ‘But why
their anus is looking into the heaven? (ti
dȇth’ ho prȏktos es ton ouranon blepei)’ (Dover notes on line 193 in his edition of The Clouds: 'prȏktos is "anus", not "buttocks", and the superficial resemblance between anus and eye makes blepei ['looks'] more vivid.') – Disc. ‘It itself on itself
learns to do astronomy (autos kath’
hauton astronomein didasketai).’ (Ar. Cl.
187-194) – Note the phrase autos kath’
hauton; Aristophanes appears to make fun of the expression with which
Socrates in Plato’s dialogues characterizes the Forms. See e.g. Plato’s Symposium where Diotima introduces the
young Socrates to the notion of the Beauty auto
kath’ hauto ‘itself in itself’ (211b1). – After thus being forcefully
reminded of Socrates, the disciple turns to his fellow disciples who are
engaged in the study of natural philosophy: ‘But get in that you are not caught
by Him (all’ eisith’, hina mȇ ‘keinos humin
epituchȇi, 195)!’ – Obviously, studying natural philosophy, the disciples were
doing something Socrates did not approve of.
Xenophon may help us to understand
this point, where he says that Socrates recommended his followers ‘to make
themselves familiar with astronomy, but only so far as to be able to find the
time of night, month and year, in order to use reliable evidence when planning
a journey by land or sea, or setting the watch, and in all other affairs that
are done in the night or month or year, by distinguishing the times and seasons
aforesaid. This knowledge, again, was easily to be had from night hunters and
pilots and others who made it their business to know such things. But he
strongly deprecated studying astronomy so far as to include the knowledge of
bodies revolving in different courses, and of planets and comets, and wearing
oneself out with the calculation of their distance from the earth, their
periods of revolution and the causes of these. Of such researches, again he
said that he could not see what useful purpose they served. He had indeed
attended lectures on these subjects too; but these again, he said, were enough
to occupy a lifetime to the complete exclusion of many useful studies.’ (Xen. Mem. IV. vii. 4-5)
Let me yet
bring in the scene to which Socrates refers in the Apology: ‘a Socrates
carried there around and saying that he walks on air’ (19c3). Strepsiades asks
Socrates, who is hanging in a basket in the air, what he is doing. Socrates: ‘I
walk in the air and think about the Sun (aerobatȏ
kai periphronȏ ton hȇlion)’. – Str.: ‘So you look down upon the gods from
the basket? (epeit’ apo tarrou tous theus
huperphroneis)’ (224-226) Dover notes on periphronȏ
in line 225: ‘Socrates means “think about”.’ On huperphroneis in line 226 Dover notes: ‘Strepsiades treats Socrates
as physically above the divine beings who are the object of his study … huperphronein has something of the
flavour of perioran, “regard as
unimportant”, and huperphronein is
always “be proud” or “despise”. The English “look down on” is a suitable
translation here.’
Here we can
see with what prescience Socrates in the Apology
began by defending himself against the old charges raised against him:
‘Socrates is an evil-doer; a meddler who searches into things under the earth
and in heaven,’ which the judges could see in Aristophanes’ comedy (Pl. Ap. 19b-c). His accuser Meletus acts in
the Apology exactly like Strepsiades,
the Twister, acted in The Clouds.
When Meletus claims that Socrates is an atheist, the latter asks: ‘Why do you
say these things (hina ti tauta legeis),
Meletus? So, I believe that neither the sun nor moon are gods? (oude hȇlion uode selȇnȇn ara nomizȏ theous
einai)’ – Meletus: ‘I assure you, judges, that he does not: for he says
that the sun is stone (epei ton men
hȇlion lithon phȇsin einai), and the moon earth (tȇn de selȇnȇn gȇn).’ – Socrates: ‘Do you think that you are
accusing Anaxagoras (Anaxagorou oiei
katȇgorein)?’ (26c-d)
Reading Apology 26c-d against the background of
Socrates’ observations about the Sun in Xenophon’s Memorabilia, as he refutes Anaxagoras’ views about the Sun (for
this see the last paragraph in my preceding post on ‘Socrates in Plato and
Xenophon’), we can better appreciate the corresponding scene in Aristophanes’
comedy with Socrates’ ‘I think about the Sun’.
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