[Buddha-l] Natural lucidity for Socrates

[Jim Peavler]

On Sep 2, 2006, at 6:06 PM, jkirk wrote:

> I used to read Socrates's last speech to my son when he was a kid-----
> we both used to weep at the thought that so morally brilliant and  
> noble a person was being executed by the state.
> That exercise set the template for us about the state as executioner.
> Joanna

I know what you mean. I didn't read any Plato until I was a Freshmen  
in college, and he blew me away.

I think you, of all people, will appreciate this story. When I moved  
to Idaho I moved out of a university environment into an engineering  
environment. I could find nobody at all who was interested in what I  
was interested in outside of winter mountaineering. So, my beautiful  
and kind-hearted secretary told me one day about a group she belonged  
to that read great books, and she thought I would be interested. So  
she got the group to invite me on the night it was to meet at her  
house. They were reading the Apology, Phaedo, and Crito. I was really  
excited and reread the works carefully. With some eagerness and  
trepidation I went to the meeting, but found very soon that the  
purpose of the meeting was to prove or disprove whether Plato was a  
proto-mormon!  As politely as possible, I thanked my guests, but was  
not invited (thankfully) to any more meetings.


Jim Peavler
jmp at peavler.org