Socratic Silence

Socrates begins his entrance to the Symposium by not doing exactly that. He actually manages to avoid entering for quite some time. In fact, he managed to avoid entering in its entirety just the day before. I would like to explore why he did so. My reasoning is three fold: Socrates likes the quiet, philosophers at times must separate themselves, and the daimon.

The first reason is seeking silence. As I stated in my (immediately) preceding blog, leisure is important to philosophy. While I have not conducted an exhaustive (or any) search of the corpus of Plato, from the near dozen of dialogues I have read, I cannot recall any of them beginning with someone working (the closest I recall being the Euthyphro and the Apology since court is exhausting enough to be considered work). The ability to philosophize without pressures seems highlighted given the (lack of) evidence (to the contrary). Socrates' standing spell could simply be a way for him to avoid pressures and enjoy his soul. Alternatively, he could be actually exploring an idea as it comes up, rather than putting it off for spare time (which never comes) like all of these millenneals (read: the people with whom I am likewise grouped). Whatever he is doing, it seems to be placing philosophy and the internal pre-eminent over the world and the external.

Second, philosophers sometimes must separate themselves. Philosophy cannot be done in the face of distraction. Socrates entirely avoids the initial party. While exploring why Socrates would do this could be fruitful, I would like to entertain the thought of why Plato would have Socrates do this. Socrates can reasonably be viewed as Plato's personification of philosophy. For Plato to have him avoid the public celebration must mean that philosophy incarnate would do the same. Perhaps this means that philosophy will lead to a state of mind where one is separated from the masses, or that one must view society from outside (though Hegel will have a thing or two to say about that in a couple thousand years) (as a second aside, I don't think Plato means philosophers should only view society as an outsider, but given his penchant for communion with philosophy, I think philosophers must have two minds about themselves). It could mean that philosophy avoids distraction or environments in which philosophy is not practised. Perhaps gluttony is to be avoided. More than likely though, it means philosophers are socially awkward.

I would love to explore the possibility of Socrates spells being guidance from the daimon, but I need to research more of his dialogues with the daimon appearing. I'm also quite sleepy.

Cheers,
Bryant