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Aristophanes vs. Socrates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2014

DON ADAMS
DON ADAMS*
Affiliation:
Central Connecticut State University
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Abstract

In Plato’s Apology, Socrates claims that phthonos and diabolē caused Aristophanes to become one of his accusers. Either Socrates is blowing things out of proportion because Aristophanes was clearly just kidding around, or we are wrong to pass Aristophanes’ humour off as ‘just kidding around.’ In this paper, I defend the second alternative. I argue that Aristophanes is a specific kind of social conservative and that Socrates was the sort of social liberal that bothered Aristophanes. I conclude that Clouds is not innocent, but is, as Socrates claimed, driven by phthonos and diabolē.

Dans l’Apologie de Platon, Socrate affirme que phthonos et diabolē ont conduit Aristophane à devenir l’un de ses accusateurs. Soit Socrate commet une grossière exagération, car clairement Aristophane ne faisait que plaisanter, soit nous avons tort de penser que l’humour d’Aristophane n’est rien d’autre que de la plaisanterie. Dans cet article, je défends la seconde position. Je soutiens qu’Aristophane est un type spécifique de conservateur social et que Socrate était le genre de social-libéral qui dérangeait Aristophane. Je conclus que Les Nuées n’est pas un texte innocent, mais est, comme Socrate le prétendait, motivé par phthonos et diabolē.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 691 - 713
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2014 

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