Exclusive Excerpt from "How to Think Like Socrates"
Read this passage from my forthcoming "prequel" to How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
But men of faint heart never yet set up a trophy… wherefore you must go forward to your discoursing manfully, and, invoking the aid of Apollo and the Muses, exhibit and celebrate the virtues of your ancient citizens. —Plato, Critias, 108c
[How to Think Like Socrates is now available for preorder in hardback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other bookstores. Order now and be one of the first to receive a copy!]
The year is 79 BCE. Three centuries have passed since the death of Socrates. A distinguished traveler from Rome, the statesman and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero, is visiting the Athenian Academy for an afternoon stroll with his friends. The school founded here by Plato, Socrates’s most famous student, is the most important philosophical institute in history—every subsequent academy bears its name. For centuries young men had flocked here to hang on the words of great orators and philosophers as they paced up and down brightly painted marble colonnades while athletes trained nearby, wrestling and running on the tracks. When Cicero and his companions arrive, however, they find the grounds eerily silent and completely deserted.
As they walk along the vacant pathways, nevertheless, the friends feel a profound connection to the past, stronger than any text could convey. The nearby garden of Plato’s house, one says, seems, very vividly, “to bring the actual man before my eyes.”
We should feel inspired not only to know about the great sages of history, in a purely intellectual way… but also to emulate their way of living.
Cicero feels that such places, where great philosophers once explored the nature of wisdom, actually miss the sound of their voices. He imagines the Academy itself mourning the loss. The companions agree that the form of nostalgia they are experiencing can be a healthy sentiment, if it encourages them to follow the example set by men like Plato and Socrates. We should feel inspired not only to know about the great sages of history, in a purely intellectual way, says Cicero, but also to emulate their way of living.
Just seven years prior, the Academy area, which lay outside the city walls, had been occupied and despoiled by Roman legionaries during the dictator Sulla’s brutal siege of Athens. Its sacred groves were felled to provide timber for war machines, and its shrines and libraries were looted. The Academy may, therefore, have appeared semi-derelict to Cicero and his friends. Despite the damage inflicted by Sulla, philosophical studies continued at Athens for several centuries, but the city never recovered its former glory.
Since the end of the classical period, the study of philosophy has shifted from being a practical way of life to being a largely bookish and theoretical pursuit. This change has been lamented by many, such as the British philhellene Lord Byron, who mourned the decline of Athens, and the fading memory of Socrates, the quintessential Athenian philosopher.
As Byron reminisced about watching the Mediterranean sun disappear behind the mountains, he exclaimed:
On such an eve his palest beam he cast When, Athens! here thy Wisest looked his last. How watched thy better sons his farewell ray, That closed their murdered Sage’s latest day!
Socrates was, of course, executed not literally “murdered” by his fellow citizens – Byron’s language is meant to express a sense of terrible injustice and loss. Yet despite Socrates’ reputation as one of history’s greatest sages, his teachings and the remarkable stories of his life, with which they were entwined, remain unfamiliar to the majority of people. The Socratic dialogues are seldom read today, except by a handful of classical scholars. And Plato’s Academy, the cradle of Western philosophy, has lain in ruins for well over a thousand years—but it does still exist.
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What other authors have said…
This is an intriguing and original book, as well as being engagingly written and highly accessible. It is innovative both in linking the Socratic dialogues, especially those of Plato, with their historical context and in highlighting the significance of Socratic philosophical enquiry for modern readers. The connection made between Socratic method and CBT psychotherapeutic guidance is particularly suggestive. — Christopher Gill, Professor Emeritus of Ancient Thought, Exeter University, author of Learning to Live Naturally: Stoic Ethics and its Modern Significance
Donald Robertson creates a wonderful semi-fictionalized Socrates to introduce modern readers to the birth of philosophy in Athens. We experience first-hand the method Socrates made famous — of subjecting our deepest beliefs to a cross-examination that jolts and stings like an electric ray. In our modern world that swirls with disinformation and unreason, we need nothing less to awaken us from our illusions. — Nancy Sherman, Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University, and author of Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience
One of the best books ever written on the power and practicality of philosophy for a good and successful life! Wisdom isn’t a rulebook but a mindset. It develops from a life of honest and courageous inquiry. Donald Robertson masterfully and vividly takes us back to the Athens of Socrates and recreates the setting as well as he does the powerful ideas that one place, time, and person launched into the world forever. It’s an introduction to philosophy as a way of life that’s as gripping as any novel, and is as novel as a philosophy book can be. Highly recommended! — Tom Morris, author of Philosophy for Dummies and Stoicism for Dummies
This looks stellar - looking forward to digging in.