Alcibiade, ca apărare a lui Socrate

In books on the history of philosophy, the ideas expressed by thinkers as they arise out of the events of everyday life are totally neglected in the university teaching of philosophy. These events largely provide explanations, like tectonic forces, for one kind of creation or another. Ideas are not usually born from ideas, but from the lived experiences and feelings of their promoters. These deep states of mind form convictions of equal depth. It is what slips off the scenario of history of philosophy treatises. Perhaps that is why a work like Diogenes Laertius’ The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers has survived. The attempt in this article is an invitation to imagine the time when a dramatic event in history gave birth to an opus. For the "neglect" to which I have drawn attention above, we submit the following for observation: how many of us realize that Socrates was in magnificent dialog with the City in its times of war? In times of plague, famine, bad news from the warfront, low hopes for peace, cruelties and decimation of populations, all between 431-404 BC.