The Philosophy Song

[Booker]

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.

David Hume could out-consume
Schopenhauer and Hegel,

And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.

There's nothing Nietzche couldn't teach ya
'Bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.

Plato, they say, could stick it away--
Half a crate of whiskey every day.

Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.
Hobbes was fond of his dram,

And Ren Descartes was a drunken fart.
'I drink, therefore I am.'

Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed,
A lovely little thinker,
But a bugger when he's pissed.


Lyrics by Monty Python

[333]

Peace

Cute to say the least but the common denominator for all of these "giants" of philosophy with the exception of socrates is that they were all "Platonic" that is to say they believe a person is only as good as his state in which he lives.
Ergo a person is not sovereign, the government is ...The aristotailean beliefs that All men are equal and sovereign in philosophical history are few and far between., so i was glad not to see the likes of John locke in your Song ? Anslem, Augustine, Jefferson, Aquinas etc.

Do you know why, how Socrates perished.?

Peace

[Booker]

Well according to Plato's account...
As related in the Crito Socrates is imprisoned awaiting the time when a sacred ship returns from Delos as this will lift a prohibition on the completion of the sentence he faces - the drinking of the fatal poison - Hemlock.

Socrates' friends offer him a sure escape to Thessaly but Socrates insists that he cannot return evil for evil. He has a duty to respect the due process of the Law in the city that had nurtured him.

The very last days of Socrates are related in Plato's the Phaedo. The sacred ship has arrived back from Delos, Socrates shackles are removed and he is allowed a final visit from his weeping wife Xanthippe who has brought with her their infant son in her arms.

Following Xanthippe's visit Socrates' final hours were spent in discussion with a group of his friends, the subjects of discussion including "the immortality of the soul". This discussion was later written about by Plato who was not actually present on this last day possibly because his own distress might well have disappointed his friend Socrates.

The discussions set out in the Phaedo feature a justification of a life lived with a view to the "cultivation of the Soul". The Orphic and Pythagorean faith background against which Socrates lives accepted the deathlessness of ths Soul, and accepted physical death as also involving the release of the Soul.
Where a person had lived a good life, - had cultivated their Soul, - they were held to merit a far more pleasant situation in an afterlife reincarnation than where a person had led a bad life.
The very fact of belief in an afterlife making the cultivation of the Soul a matter of the utmost importance.
People were deemed to be "chattels of God" however and were not deemed to be free to seeking induction into the afterlife by taking their own lives.
Crito asks Socrates in what way would he like to be buried. Socrates replied that he would be happy to be buried any way Crito likes, provided the Crito can get get hold of him and takes care that he does not walk away.

Socrates then addressed the whole company present and smilingly commented that Crito had difficulty in perceiving that the real Socrates would soon depart to the joys of the blessed and that only his body would remain to be buried.
Socrates went into the bath chamber in order to wash and save the womenfolk the task of washing his body after death. While he was gone his friends considered amongst thenselves how like a father Socrates was to them and how like orphans they would be before long.
After a final visit from Socrates sons and womenfolk just before sunset a jailer entered and respectfully and tearfully told Socrates that the time was come for him to drink the cup of Hemlock.
Shortly thereafter the Hemlock was brought to Socrates who drank it as if a libation to the Gods. Socrates upbraided some of his assembled friends for the extremity of their distress.

As was usual in such cases Socrates was required to walk about a little until a certain heaviness, due to the effects of the Hemlock, crept into his legs. Thereafter condemned persons could expect their bodies to be increasingly overtaken by a fatal numbness.

Just before his death Socrates last words were:-


Crito, we owe a cock to Aesculapius; please pay it and don't let it pass.



Aesculapius was the God of Medicine and these words implied that Socrates felt that he owed a debt to the God of Medicine because of the cup of Hemlock he had just drunk.





After Socrates' death opinion in Athens turned against his accusers.

[333]

Peace

Excellent ,thankyou very much.

How would anyone choose under such circumstances.

Why must the hero more often than not be a "martyr"?

Peace

[wax]

333- How would anyone choose under such circumstances.

Wax- Oh boy... "anyone"?

One must become evil to defeat evil if any of my childhood lessons were correct.

The woodsmen must chop the wolf open to not only discover grandma but to insure that others are not eaten.

Hansel must push the witch into the fire but don't worry... she deserves it!

The problem with a martyr is that confusion may not exist.
And the result can only be measured by those who follow.

Can't return evil for evil?
Well that would be your chosen martyr not mine!

[wax]

But I left you without an understanding of who my philosophical martyrs might be if I were to claim such:

How about Leonidas; a philosopher without peer.
Martin Sargeant... google it if you want.
How about Pfc. Ross A. McGinnis?

You see philosophy as some sort of elite activity but it is not!
And it is the science of philosophy that dictates such an understanding would be very wrong.

John locke might have created the "social contract" out of non-existant cloth but it was simple observation. I have libertarian leanings myself but he was not the end all of anything. He used theological foundation to claim human nature as being "reason and tolerance" when the simple facts of living deny such drivel!
He argued against Augustine, so one must have merit while the other must be worthless right :) ;) (I know... I know... discovery alone does not have merit, but what it produces, just a little jab)

Which brings us to Augustine himself: Wonderful choice for a good Catholic... confusing at best for a modern philosopher! Creator of such classics as: "Lustful sex is the enemy of God" (Luxuria est inimica Dei.),
"To sing once is to pray twice" (Qui cantat, bis orat) literally "he who sings, prays twice",
"There is no salvation outside the church" (Salus extra ecclesiam non est) (De Bapt. IV, cxvii.24)

Yes... a "wonderful" philosopher!

Anslem? Did you mean Saint Anselm?
If so please don't waste our time, if not... just who in the hell are you talking about?

Jefferson was a great philosopher to be certain. He philosophized his way into onwe of his slaves pants and then denied doing so.
Simply a man of his time?
If you have convinced yourself of that then fine I guess.

Aquinas?
Do you have a thing for Roman Catholic theology or what?
Aquinas believed "that for the knowledge of any truth whatsoever man needs Divine help, that the intellect may be moved by God to its act."

Wow! Now that is philosophy!

I am poking fun of course because all men are fallible just by being men.

But all men are also philosophers whether trained and recignized as such or not.