THE OTHER OF THE OTHER: SETH BENARDETE’S VIEW OF SOCRATES

• Authors: Janssens David
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Following in the footsteps of his teacher Leo Strauss, Seth Benardete devoted his life to understanding “the problem of Socrates”: Plato’s complex and enigmatic portrayal of the ironic Socrates’ embodiment of the philosophic life. This paper introduces Benardete’s rich and dense interpretive work by focusing on his understanding of two of Socrates’ most distinctive characteristics: his daimonion and his eros. Like Strauss, Benardete reads Plato’s dialogues as a response to Aristophanes’ fundamental but friendly critique of Socrates in the Clouds. In this context, the daimonion and eros emerge as the manifestation of Socrates’ self-knowledge, and thus of political philosophy as the “eccentric core” of philosophy. Guided by Plato, Benardete subsequently moves beyond the “quarrel between poetry and philosophy” to trace the Socratic turn and the origins of political philosophy all the way back to Homer.

Keywords

EN

SOCRATES; SETH BENARDETE; LEO STRAUSS; DAIMONION; EROS

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Filozofia (Philosophy)
• Year: 2025
• Volume: 80
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 559 – 573

Contributors

author

Janssens David

• Department of Philosophy/University College Tilburg, School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Tilburg University Warandelaan 2, 5037 AB Tilburg, The Netherlands

• https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3633-2971

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/filozofia.2025.80.4.7