Socrates in 90 Minutes

"Socrates in90 Minutes" -- another installment in Paul Strathern's "philosophers in 90-minutes series" -- delivers precisely what it was designed to. Strathern leads us in a wide-ranging discussion of everything you might want to know about Socrates - his place of birth, the issues that were salient in his day, his education, his personal life with wife Xanthippe, and his death by hemlock. You will learn how we know about Socrates, his relationship with Plato and his influence on his day and future generations. You will accompany Strathern as he takes us to the places where Socrates taught and died. You will also find out what a strange fellow he was - bald, bowlegged, bulge-eyed and irritating as all get out. Strathern does a wonderful job of blending the sources to provide a real-life glimpse of the man who gave us the Socratic dialog and inspired countless generations with his unyielding puncturing of the pretensions of his day. Beyond a few aphorisms ("To thine own self be true," etc.) you might not hear as many of Socrates' words as you might like, but what you get in 90 minutes is the context for any future study of this fascinating man.

This book is a quite good introduction to the life of Socrates. It is less good as a description of that method of dialogue , the maieutic method of philosophical midwifery by which Socrates attempted to educe the truth about any given concept or subject. Strathern accurately portrays Socrates role as gadfly- teaching the arrogant complacent citizens of Athens that they really did not understand what they thought they understood or know what they thought they knew. He too is good describing Socrates disturbing social role in Athens. He also retells the story of Socrates trial, drinking of the hemlock and becoming the world's first martyr of philosophy. He does not however stress the important point that Socrates took this action out of his sense of loyalty to the polis,his sense of duty as a citizen of Athens. And that therefore the one who had been tried and accused as disloyal to the state, in effect gave his life in a display ( wisely or not)of loyalty to it. And this when the courage and calm in the face of death is too an essential part of the heroic image of the philosopher Socrates leaves to posterity.

... and this is one of my favorites. I went to the library one day, intent on learning a little bit on philosophy, a subject I knew absolutely nothing about. One of the books I picked up was "Thomas Aquinas in 90 Minutes" by the same author. In the next few weeks, I read about 12 of Strathern's "Philosophers in 90 Minutes" books, every one the library had. I went to another library and got all the ones they had.Strathern's books changed my life; it was like going to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and seeing people like myself. I discovered that I like thinking and philosophy. "Socrates in 90 Minutes" is one of my favorites. I went as far as to buy it in hopes that my wife would read it. Since my introduction to Strathern's work, I have started to build a collection of it, one that I hope to have for decades to come. If you want to start anywhere in philosophy, "Socrates in 90 Minutes" is a great place to start, both because of the subject and the writing. Strathern is witty and well-written, and it comes out brillantly in this book, which I think is the best of his small ones. No, this book isn't for someone getting their Master's Degree in Philosophy. So what? It's fun to read and you get an idea of what Socrates was really like. Strathern does tend to focus more on the philosophers' lives than their works, but I think this is the best way to get to know them, for you can't understand an idea without its context. "Cogito ergo sum," doesn't seem very impressive when you don't take into consideration a millenium of intellectual thought being stiffled. In this book, you get to realize how Socrates developed his philosophy, how people reacted to it and how people reacted to him. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to read something more meaningful than a Harold Robbins paperback. It's fun and it's a book you'll want to keep forever.