As I mentioned in a previous blog, I have a number of book shelves filled with books. (Everyone does, right?) While either my wife or I have read the majority of them, there are those lonely volumes that wait for the day for someone to pick them up and read them.
My reading since Baby Hayden #3 arrived on the scene has consisted of 1.5 Star Wars novels, a SAO light novel, and a Brandon Sanderson YA novel. As I adjust to the new life-as-I-know-it, I began to hanker for something a bit denser. I know, I’m weird like that. I nearly started a Russian novel but I ended up pulling an old Harvard Classics collection off the shelf, which I’d received from somewhere but never read. It contains some works by Plato as well as other classic writers.
I’ve never read any Plato–or, in this case, any Socrates as recorded by Plato. But after finishing Apology of Socrates (Socrates’ defense before the Athenians who were accusing him), I plan on reading more. Certainly, the language and rhetoric is enjoyable, but what hooked me was the focus and discussion of virtue.
I won’t pretend to be a philosophy buff or an expert on anything Greek, but it seems to me that part of Socrates’ appeal is that he places such an unrelenting emphasis on the development of the soul. (more…)
