Socrates: Reason or Unreason as the Foundation of European Identity

Socrates is widely regarded as the first philosopher to investigate not simply the natural world but to make human and political questions concerning justice, virtue and the good life central to rational inquiry. Thus, Socratic philosophy is often viewed as taking a rationalist approach to human narratives and becomes a narrative itself. After Socrates the prevailing view of what defines the Greeks and those commonly regarded as their descendents, the Europeans, is their civilizational foundation in philosophic rationalism. The Socratic conception of Greek and European identity has not gone unchallenged however. In antiquity the comic poet Aristophanes lampooned Socrates as impious and unjust and cast doubt on whether the Socratic way of life was an appropriate basis for politics. Examples from more recent times include the ambiguous place that Socratic philosophizing holds in the philosophies of Hegel, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. The re-assessment of Socratic rationalism in the 19th century has led a to a post-modern suspicion of grand narratives. The radical critique of Socrates as the remote but powerful source of the priority assigned to reason in the 17th and 18th century Enlightenment(s) has shaken European faith in scientific, social and political progress. The European mind is left longing for a unifying narrative that crystallizes the European identity. Can Socratic philosophy survive the powerful challenges made in the name of history, faith and art? Does Socratic philosophizing adequately sustain political life in the face of such challenges, and does it prioritize reason over other human ways of knowing and representing their world? Alternatively, do the positions of later thinkers offer superior ways to understand the human person and develop political communities? This volume addresses these and related questions as it seeks to recover and revise our understanding of Socratic philosophy as an appropriate paradigm for European identity. It takes an interdisciplinary and international approach with contributions from scholars in the fields of philosophy, classics, religion, English and political science. The contributors teach and research in Europe, Canada, the United States and Iran. 'A remarkable collection of essays by distinguished international scholars who use Socrates as a point of departure to explore the philosophic roots of Western civilization and European identity. While Socrates emerges as a hero, he is a Socrates whose philosophic rationality comprehends the broad spectrum of human emotional, aesthetic, historical, and spiritual life. The volume challenges contemporary thinking about the Greeks, about reason, and about the future of the West.' Mary Nichols, Chair and Professor of Political Science, Baylor University In this volume scholars from an unusually rich diversity of disciplines and of national backgrounds join in fruitful and challenging dialogue, wrestling with the question of the tenability of the Socratic rationalist foundation of European identity. The challenges to Socratic political philosophizing posed by contemporary historicist, faith-based, and artistically inspired thinking are squarely faced; and, in this light, the strengths and the weaknesses of a revived Socratic rationalism, as a response to the need for a spiritual reunification of the West, are deeply explored. Tom Pangle