{"id":9477,"date":"2009-08-09T13:38:16","date_gmt":"2009-08-09T20:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=9477"},"modified":"2010-06-26T10:12:29","modified_gmt":"2010-06-26T17:12:29","slug":"from-the-gift-of-fire-by-richard-mitchell-who-is-socrates-now-that-we-need-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9477\/from-the-gift-of-fire-by-richard-mitchell-who-is-socrates-now-that-we-need-him\/","title":{"rendered":"From The Gift of Fire<\/em>, by Richard Mitchell: Who is Socrates, Now That We Need Him?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quoted from Mark Alexander’s wonderful Richard Mitchell web site:<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nWhen Benjamin Franklin<\/a> was hardly more than a boy, but clearly a comer, he decided to achieve moral perfection. As guides in this enterprise, he chose Jesus and Socrates<\/a>. One of his self-assigned rules<\/a> for daily behavior was nothing more than this: "Imitate Jesus and Socrates."<\/p>\n

I suspect that few would disagree. Even most militant atheists admire Jesus, while assuming, of course, that they<\/i> admire him for the right reasons. Even those who have no philosophy and want none admire Socrates, although exactly why, they can not say. And very few, I think, would tell the young Franklin that he ought to have made some different choices: Alexander, for instance, or Francis Bacon.<\/p>\n

Jesus, just now, has no shortage of would-be imitators, although they do seem to disagree among themselves as to how he ought to be imitated. But the imitators of Socrates, if any there be, are hard to find. For one thing, if they are more or less accurately imitating him, they will not organize themselves into Socrates clubs and pronounce their views. If we want to talk with them, we will have to seek them out; and, unless we ourselves become, to some degree at least, imitators of Socrates, we will not know enough to want to seek them out. Indeed, unless we are sufficiently his imitators, we might only know enough not<\/i> to want to seek him out, for some of those who sought Socrates out found reason to wish that they hadn’t. Unlike Jesus, or, to be more accurate, unlike the Jesus whom many imagine, Socrates often brought not the Good News, but the Bad.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, people do from time to time come to know enough about Socrates to be drawn into his company, and to agree, with rare exceptions, that it would indeed be a good thing to imitate him. The stern poet-philosopher Nietzsche<\/a> was one of those exceptions, for he believed, and quite correctly, that reasonable discourse was the weapon with which the weak might defeat the strong, but most of us often do think of ourselves as weak Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quoted from Mark Alexander’s wonderful Richard Mitchell web site:   When Benjamin Franklin was hardly more than a boy, but clearly a comer, he decided to achieve moral perfection. As guides in this enterprise, he chose Jesus and Socrates. One of his self-assigned rules for daily behavior was nothing more than this: "Imitate Jesus and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,212,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-flourishing","8":"category-group-therapy","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":566,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/566\/identifying-mavericks-socrates-jesus-cyrano-and-glenn-kelman-we-dont-have-to-love-the-truth-we-just-have-to-live-with-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":9477,"position":0},"title":"Identifying mavericks: Socrates, Jesus, Cyrano and — Glenn Kelman?!? We don’t have to love the truth, we just have to live with it . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This is me in a comment at Mike's Corner. Mike Price is looking for nominations for the most influential mavericks in the real estate industry, individuals and companies. Share your thoughts with him.I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately, although the words I use in my own mind\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2659,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2659\/do-you-want-to-understand-what-web-20-means-in-your-own-life-on-the-internet-socrates-would-have-lived\/","url_meta":{"origin":9477,"position":1},"title":"Do you want to understand what Web 2.0 means in your own life? On the internet, Socrates would have lived","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I just wrote this in a comment to Kevin Tomlinson, but it's important, so I want to address it in the larger arena: On the internet, everything is Kevlar. This is for real, and it\u2019s a lesson people are slowly learning all over the globe:Muscle power accumulates, brain power does\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2819,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2819\/splendorquest-jesus-christ-superstar\/","url_meta":{"origin":9477,"position":2},"title":"SplendorQuest: Jesus Christ Superstar","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"[I wrote this at Easter in 2003, just short of five years ago. --GSS] Tomorrow is Easter, and all good Catholics will go to Mass. In our parish, every Mass will be packed, and there will be overflow Masses in the school cafeteria. But Catholic or not, Easter calls our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11601,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/11601\/splendorquest-redemption-is-egoism-in-action-even-if-other-people-are-criminal-i-am-not-but-i-will-not-cause-them-to-become-good-by-becoming-a-criminal-myself\/","url_meta":{"origin":9477,"position":3},"title":"SplendorQuest: Redemption is egoism in action: Even if other people are criminal, I am not — but I will not cause them to become good by becoming a criminal myself.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote this a dozen years ago, and I've posted it here before. It's apposite today, because, to all indications, we are all about to be involuntarily inducted into a cannibal cult. My question for you: Will you choose to be devoured by your neighbors, or will you elect to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3824,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3824\/redemption-is-egoism-in-action-in-support-of-mike-farmer-even-if-other-people-are-criminal-i-am-not-but-i-will-not-cause-them-to-become-good-by-becoming-a-criminal-myself\/","url_meta":{"origin":9477,"position":4},"title":"Redemption is egoism in action: In support of Mike Farmer, even if other people are criminal, I am not — but I will not cause them to become good by becoming a criminal myself","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Not completely off topic, but well above the normal fray. I wrote this ten or twelve years ago: \u00a0What I want to discuss is Socrates' question about whether it is better to inflict an injury or to have an injury inflicted upon you. It's a favorite of sophists and sophomores,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12351,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12351\/reasons-to-be-cheerful-part-two-if-we-are-wise-and-if-we-are-lucky-we-wont-meet-the-new-boss-because-there-wont-be-any-bosses\/","url_meta":{"origin":9477,"position":5},"title":"Reasons to be cheerful, Part two: If we are wise, and if we are lucky, we won’t “meet the new boss” because there won’t be any bosses.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Watch this: Yes, everyone knows Saturday Night Live is not funny, but that sketch is interesting, even so. Why? What is that bit actually saying? Actors are puppets for writers, never forget that. What are the writers of that unfunny little skit trying to say? Imagine this: Your parents spent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9477"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12446,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9477\/revisions\/12446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}