The Athens Dialogues Through the Lens of Adam Smith

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The dominant reading of Socrates in the literature has always been to think that he is at least some of the time either being ironic or being made fun off by Plato. But I don't share that reading, and it's ethically hard to read him that way. There's a kind of something there in text that's more difficult and more challenging that we escape from. The people who accuse Socrates of being ironic are like Thrasymachus and Calakles,. they're not the good guys or the friends, right?

Is a written dialogue the best way to learn from philosopher Agnes Callard?

If so, what does that say about philosophy? Is Plato’s Symposium about love or mere intoxication? If good people lived forever, would they be less bored than the bad people? Should we fear death? Is parenting undertheorized? Must philosophy rely on refutation? Should we read the classics? Is Jordan Peterson’s moralizing good? Should we take Socrates at his word? Is Hamlet a Cartesian? Are we all either Beethoven or Mozart people? How do we get ourselves to care about things we don’t yet care about? To what should we aspire to?

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded March 22nd, 2018 Other ways to connect

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Follow Agnes on Twitter
Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.