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Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher
An innovative and insightful exploration of the passionate early life of Socrates and the influences that led him to become the first and greatest of philosophers. the philosopher whose questioning gave birth to the foundations of Western thought, and whose execution marked the end of the Athenian Golden Age. Yet despite his pre-eminence among the great thinkers of history, little of his life story is known. What we know tends to begin in his middle age and end with his trial and death. Our conception of Socrates has relied upon Plato and Xenophon--men who met him when he was in his fifties, a well-known figure in war-torn Athens. There is mystery at the heart of Socrates's what turned the young Socrates into a philosopher? What drove him to pursue with such persistence, at the cost of social acceptance and ultimately his life, a whole new way of thinking about the meaning of existence? In this revisionist biography, classicist Armand D'Angour draws on neglected sources to explore the passions and motivations of young Socrates, showing how love transformed him into the philosopher he was to become. What emerges is the figure of Socrates as never previously a heroic warrior, an athletic wrestler and dancer--and a passionate lover. Socrates in Love sheds new light on the formative journey of the philosopher, finally revealing the identity of the woman who Socrates claimed inspired him to develop ideas that have captivated thinkers for 2,500 years.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published May 7, 2019
48 people are currently reading
419 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
September 4, 2020
Given that the central thesis of D'Angour's book-that the transformative dialogue Socrates reveals himself to have had with Diotima as a younger man, as recounted in the Symposium, was in fact a discourse with Aspasia, but one veiled in Plato's writing for a multitude of reasons - forms only a small part of his argumentation but much of the framing, its difficult to know what precisely to review.
November 3, 2019
Intriguing premise, but the sources are just too fragmented for me to see this as anything but speculation. I'm glad I read it but I prefer The Hemlock Cup by Betthany Hughes for an interpretation of Socrates.
January 6, 2024
yeah its fine
good for further a level research tbh
good for further a level research tbh
June 16, 2023
عنوان کتاب یه کم به زردی میزن�. ولی اینجو� نیست. کتاب خوبیه برای شناخت سقراط و تصویر تازها� ازین فیلسوف به دست مید�.
December 11, 2019
Socrates' life,
Pericles' wife.
Pericles' wife.
April 12, 2021
الحب
.
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في الأصل ، كما يقول أريستوفانيس ، كان الكائن البشري عبارة عن مركب من ذكر وأنثى . كانت الكائنات البشرية مستديرة الشكل ، مخلوقات ممتلئة الجسم بأربعة أذرع وأربعة أرجل ، ووجهان ينظران في اتجاهين متعاكسين ، وأربع آذان ، ومجموعتين من الأعضاء التناسلية ، وما إلى ذلك.
جعلتهم قوتهم البارزة طموحين بشكل مفرط ، لذلك حاولوا بالفعل الصعود إلى الجنة لمهاجمة الآلهة.
تناقش زيوس والآلهة الأخرى حول ما يجب القيام به. لم يرغبوا في إبادة البشر لأن ذلك سيعني نهاية كل التكريم والتضحيات التي قد يحصلون عليها. لذلك توصل زيوس إلى خطة لإضعاف هذه المخلوقات عن طريق تقسيم كل منها إلى قسمين: قام بتقطيعها من المنتصف ، كما لو كان يقطع بيضة مسلوقة إلى نصفين بسلك. عندما تم قطع المخلوق الأصلي إلى قسمين ، اشتاق كل نصف إلى النصف الآخر ، وحاولوا يائسين دمج أنفسهم مرة أخرى ببعضهم البعض ، ولكن دون جدوى. وهكذا يستمر الأمر ، كما يقول أريستوفانيس. كل واحد منا هو مجرد نصف إنسان ، ونحن في مسعى أبدي للعثور على النصف المطابق. الحب هو القوة التي تجعلنا نحاول استعادة طبيعتنا الأصلية ونصبح كاملين مرة أخرى.
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Armand D’Angour
Socrates in Love
Translated by #Maher_Razouk
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في الأصل ، كما يقول أريستوفانيس ، كان الكائن البشري عبارة عن مركب من ذكر وأنثى . كانت الكائنات البشرية مستديرة الشكل ، مخلوقات ممتلئة الجسم بأربعة أذرع وأربعة أرجل ، ووجهان ينظران في اتجاهين متعاكسين ، وأربع آذان ، ومجموعتين من الأعضاء التناسلية ، وما إلى ذلك.
جعلتهم قوتهم البارزة طموحين بشكل مفرط ، لذلك حاولوا بالفعل الصعود إلى الجنة لمهاجمة الآلهة.
تناقش زيوس والآلهة الأخرى حول ما يجب القيام به. لم يرغبوا في إبادة البشر لأن ذلك سيعني نهاية كل التكريم والتضحيات التي قد يحصلون عليها. لذلك توصل زيوس إلى خطة لإضعاف هذه المخلوقات عن طريق تقسيم كل منها إلى قسمين: قام بتقطيعها من المنتصف ، كما لو كان يقطع بيضة مسلوقة إلى نصفين بسلك. عندما تم قطع المخلوق الأصلي إلى قسمين ، اشتاق كل نصف إلى النصف الآخر ، وحاولوا يائسين دمج أنفسهم مرة أخرى ببعضهم البعض ، ولكن دون جدوى. وهكذا يستمر الأمر ، كما يقول أريستوفانيس. كل واحد منا هو مجرد نصف إنسان ، ونحن في مسعى أبدي للعثور على النصف المطابق. الحب هو القوة التي تجعلنا نحاول استعادة طبيعتنا الأصلية ونصبح كاملين مرة أخرى.
.
Armand D’Angour
Socrates in Love
Translated by #Maher_Razouk
December 14, 2023
how did people act and think like this in 400 BC and how did we go backwards
June 8, 2024
A book of ancient gossips, it shows how much imagination and guesswork is required in the attempt to paint a true picture of the original philosopher. I am not convinced by the "love" argument. Still, an interesting read built around the masterful use of a great bibliography.
January 25, 2020
This book changes my mind about Socrates. I know about him from Plato and Xenophon works: old philosopher who big belly, bald, and ask everything to all people in the street and market. D’Angour brings Socrates as a warm person with full of love, the guy with muscle because he was a warrior, and so on. His true love not Xanthippe, his wife, but Alcibiades, the boy who gave him Platonic’s love. From Diotima, Socrates learnt about how love not only sexual desire but the basic of concept of philosophy.
June 19, 2019
The author proposes a novel, but highly speculative, thesis.
April 13, 2020
This is a fascinating book that reviews a wide spectrum of evidence to provide context to Socrate's life. It is well written.
April 8, 2023
Long ago, in a culture different than most cultures, in a city known as Athens, philosophy began. One of the most important aspects of consciousness attendant to an improved understanding of consciousness and communication was provided by Socrates. Socrates never wrote anything down, did he? His intentions were not clarified since he rarely talked about why he gathered groups of people together to communicate for a period of time concerning a subject, did he? Perhaps he did not know why he did what he did? I propose that his reason was not apparent to him or anyone else. He mentioned a voice he had within him. That voice is the one I am attempting to introduce since it likely was Earth Based Source Consciousness (EBSC). He was likely attempting to derive an understanding of truth. Recall that Athens, like most societies was dominated by males. There was intimacy amongst the males of the population. Since most of the world is the second ray of consciousness, the ray of resistance, intimacy can bring agreement more effectively than any other factor. That was likely why philosophy began in "Greece." Intimacy allows for an improved environment for agreement, doesn't it? An important factor in finding a common understanding in any situation is intimacy, isn’t it? Common understandings can be facilitated by an understanding of a subject being discussed in that moment, can’t they? Not writing anything down was likely a preferred context for truth by Socrates.
How is it that human beings have grown to find relevance to any cultural understanding? That is a much larger context, isn’t it? If truth is found only in intimacy, if reality is best shared in intimacy, what is happening in the world attempting to communicate remotely? Truth is no longer possible in a world based in remote communication, is it? Therefore, the problem referenced as polarization results mostly from the Internet and remote communication, doesn’t it? Some of the important factors associated with communication missing in remote communication are both body language as well as tone of voice. Aquarian Theosophy is developing an understanding of consciousness to clarify another aspect of communication, love. EBSC, facilitating our intimate communication and love, can be introduced to assist in understanding both love as well as communication. I'm writing a book about human consciousness entitled Endless Love, the Story of Humankind in Consciousness.
How is it that human beings have grown to find relevance to any cultural understanding? That is a much larger context, isn’t it? If truth is found only in intimacy, if reality is best shared in intimacy, what is happening in the world attempting to communicate remotely? Truth is no longer possible in a world based in remote communication, is it? Therefore, the problem referenced as polarization results mostly from the Internet and remote communication, doesn’t it? Some of the important factors associated with communication missing in remote communication are both body language as well as tone of voice. Aquarian Theosophy is developing an understanding of consciousness to clarify another aspect of communication, love. EBSC, facilitating our intimate communication and love, can be introduced to assist in understanding both love as well as communication. I'm writing a book about human consciousness entitled Endless Love, the Story of Humankind in Consciousness.
July 4, 2022
I think this has to be read in the light that we don't have a lot of reliable sources about Socrates' life, and the author is upfront about this. This is a different approach to Socrates - it's about Socrates the man rather than Socrates the ideas.
I liked this approach as the bits we do know about Socrates or have been said about him cast him as an interesting character. I read this as a story, not a reference book, and found it highly enjoyable. I think if you look at it from the perspective of "Socrates' life could have been a movie" this works well. You would expect a movie to make some assumptions to fill in the blanks.
I liked this different approach to Socrates because it makes us think about how we view historical figures, how we've come to view them and how this shapes our philosophy. As it was pointed out, there are some different possibilities for various parts of Socrates' lives and these may have been carefully differently reported by those who wanted to write and rewrite him in different ways. It's interesting to reflect on how this may affect many of our views of historical figures, even those of whom we have better records.
I liked this approach as the bits we do know about Socrates or have been said about him cast him as an interesting character. I read this as a story, not a reference book, and found it highly enjoyable. I think if you look at it from the perspective of "Socrates' life could have been a movie" this works well. You would expect a movie to make some assumptions to fill in the blanks.
I liked this different approach to Socrates because it makes us think about how we view historical figures, how we've come to view them and how this shapes our philosophy. As it was pointed out, there are some different possibilities for various parts of Socrates' lives and these may have been carefully differently reported by those who wanted to write and rewrite him in different ways. It's interesting to reflect on how this may affect many of our views of historical figures, even those of whom we have better records.
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January 2, 2023Sometimes we stop doing something for specific reasons.
Then we forget about those reasons, and go back to doing whatever we stopped doing...
Only to learn again why we stopped doing something - and go back to not doing it.
In my case the thing I stopped doing a while ago was reading modern accounts of ancient Greek figures.
The reason was the following: Modern accounts often make ancient events/figures fit modern clothes. Modern accounts desire to turn Sappho into a feminist icon, Plato into an atheist icon. Perhaps they aren't even entirely wrong, yet it gets rid of an ancient figure's/event's entirety/complexity - the buffet of interesting details which make things so lovely.
The modern depiction seems, at times, closer to fan fiction than anything else. Which, sure, is fine as long as we admit that that's what we're doing - or desire to read (modern retellings of ancient Greek tragedy and mythology can be fantastic and have real potential).
I kind of forgot those reasons as to why I tended to avoid modern accounts. Now I remember.
No stars in this review as I feel that it would be unfair to the author and the book. I'm sure many could easily enjoy this book.
Then we forget about those reasons, and go back to doing whatever we stopped doing...
Only to learn again why we stopped doing something - and go back to not doing it.
In my case the thing I stopped doing a while ago was reading modern accounts of ancient Greek figures.
The reason was the following: Modern accounts often make ancient events/figures fit modern clothes. Modern accounts desire to turn Sappho into a feminist icon, Plato into an atheist icon. Perhaps they aren't even entirely wrong, yet it gets rid of an ancient figure's/event's entirety/complexity - the buffet of interesting details which make things so lovely.
The modern depiction seems, at times, closer to fan fiction than anything else. Which, sure, is fine as long as we admit that that's what we're doing - or desire to read (modern retellings of ancient Greek tragedy and mythology can be fantastic and have real potential).
I kind of forgot those reasons as to why I tended to avoid modern accounts. Now I remember.
No stars in this review as I feel that it would be unfair to the author and the book. I'm sure many could easily enjoy this book.
February 13, 2021
Wildly speculative, but, when dealing with biased, fragmented sources, what else can be expected? Socrates is perhaps one of the most enigmatic personalities of our known history, if only because we both know so much about him, but also nothing about him—a paradox I think he would find highly entertaining. This attempt to recreate the person behind the Socrates of Plato and Xenophon was well thought out and an entertaining read. As the author alludes in the afterword—I’m ready for the movie.
July 27, 2021
An interesting read which taught me quite a bit, but it all felt a bit jumbled. The conclusion seems clear early on but the majority of the book feels like background rather than anything evidential. I realise that this is ancient history, and we have to make a lot of suggestions and assumptions rather than telling factual stories, but I didn’t feel convinced about anything by the end. However, there were some intriguing ideas in there, and it was written in a very readable way.
January 6, 2022
A good overall biography of Socrates with some interesting and well-researched theories regarding the lesser known aspects of his life. Overall a very good biography, although some of the conjecture about Socrates' health conditions (such as him having catalepsy) and the supposed romantic links between him and Aspasia seem tenuous. However, the core of D'Angour's assertions remain solid and believable, which makes this a highly informative read.
April 8, 2023
Com espírito inquiridor de detective, inteligência para construir deduções e inferências, e solidez argumentativa que baste para sustentar as suas especulações, D'Angour oferece uma proposta de biografia de um Sócrates que em vários pontos (física e emocionalmente) se afasta da imagem tradicionalmente oferecida por historiadores e filósofos. Tudo apoiado num conhecimento admiravelmente extenso do tema, e numa escrita simples, escorreita e agradável de seguir.
May 27, 2021
A decent introduction to Athens around the Periclean age, and to Socrates, but D'Angour's thesis about Socrates and Aspasia is highly speculative, and his exposition of it is the least compelling part of the book. Perhaps this should have been a novel?
June 28, 2022
An appealing tale, though relies heavily off speculation. D'Angour has a tendency to write down everything he knows about Athenian history. Would be improved with more focussed writing and better editing.
July 18, 2022
The author is clear about the reliability of the things stated, it's all just the interpretation and on the aspect of interpretation the author have done a great job. However, the author being a professor, this books is much more like a research paper or a thesis written by a historian.
April 8, 2023
A great read. It took me back in time and led me on a journey through the (mostly imagined but well researched) life of an important person. It would make a great movie - but not in the Hollywood blockbuster style.
February 23, 2024
“in a dialogue not written by socrates he refers to a woman as honored by zeus. this must be the lifelong mistress of pericles and socrates must have had an affair with this women as a young man because wouldn’t that be interesting?�
I refuse to take you seriously
I refuse to take you seriously
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August 26, 2019Biopic in the making.
October 5, 2020
Great book that led me down a summer rabbit hole, starting with Thucydides' Pelopennesian War.
January 26, 2021
a good book to familiarize yourself with socrates
July 30, 2021
Substantial conjecture. If you read this book start with the Afterword. The author condenses the narrative in a coherent way - then tackle the detail and repetitive text.
August 17, 2021
Makes some bold claims, but an enjoyable (if semi-fictive) and gripping account.
August 27, 2021
An interesting examination of the existing biographical details of the sage and their potential connection to the development of his philosophy.
September 20, 2021
Slightly offbeat in its approach. But entertaining and insightful without overloading
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