Skip navigation.

Sign up | Lost password? | Help

philosophy

and anything else that matters

Canto Alla Vita

Saturday, 19. August 2006, 15:50:57

, , ,


I hope you know Socrates. If you don't, you may leave immediately. Because I think he is the greatest, coolest – simply the best – philosopher ever. I fell in love with him a few years ago, when we tried to translate Plato in our Ancient Greek lessons. It was very difficult, but I fell deeply in love with Socrates style. His manner of asking questions and showing people with pure logic that what they thought was wrong was just incredible. And he believed in justice... When he was sentenced to death and waited for the cup of hemlock, his friends made a plan to free him, but he wouldn't go with them. He believed that the court must have been right to decide that he should die, so he did. He wouldn't do something against justice. He had nerve...

"I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall; I've lived through it all"
(Josh Groban – "Canto alla vita")

Whenever I hear the first lines of that, an image appears before my inner eye. It's a picture of Socrates. He raises his cup to life and drinks the poison, smiling.
I love the song, and the picture it produces.

So, that was a song "about" my idol, now comes "my" song, in case you'd like to know what I'm like and don't want to read this.

"We have crossed the Rubicon
Our ship awash, our rudder gone
The rats have fled but I'm hanging on
Let me try, baby, try

Baby, please, let me begin
Let me be your heroine
Hate the sinner but love the sin
Let me be your heroine"
(Aimee Mann – "High on Sunday 51")

RuneFalling

Comments

zerog 30. August 2006, 17:59

Socrates? Hmm...that rings some bells. Oh, yes. Gee! What is it with Germans and ancient Greek philosophers? Socrates didn't ever answered that question, (maybe because no one asked him), but I think he would feel his heart smiling if he read this.

Yes, he was "rock" if you ask me. He was above the stupid court because he was above the fear of death. What's somewhat cynical is that this freedom was earned by the very realization that is usually responsible for people's enslavement. Ignorance. A quite different kind of ignorance of course but still I find this a bit cynical.

Anyway. Fine post. A multitude of ideas and images dancing around a central theme. This goes to my VIPs.

:smile:

PS: Of course the first paragraph is just a sample of my zero gravity humur and should be treated...lightly.

nolah 30. August 2006, 19:47

Oh, thank you! I didn't thought it would be liked that much. :smile: Just because I wanted to write down one of the few real images my fantasy provides me with...

NOLA_1977 20. November 2006, 00:23

Hey Sweetie.

How ya been? Excellent post!

nolah 20. November 2006, 09:05

Hey Dillon!

My life's a mess, but if I find a little time I'll come round your blog to learn to smile again.
Thanks for stopping by! :smile:

DoctorTypo 9. January 2007, 17:28

I love philosophy!

nolah 9. January 2007, 20:24

Good for you! :wink:

Anonymous 25. November 2007, 11:30

Anonymous writes:

I teach Philosophy here in the Philippines.

One of my opening lessons in ethics is the Socratic question:

"Is something pious because the gods love it,
or the gods love it because it is pious?"

Of course, that's from Plato's dialogue "Euthyphro".

If there is such thing as piety at all, or morality in general, it must not be as arbitrary as the wishes of any authority.

Rather, it must be an independent criterion such that when something is wrong, not even the gods can make it right.

Let's be friends.

Check out my profile: www.friendster.com/odchi

MizzMartinez 22. December 2007, 11:07

Socrates! Interesting, I must say that I prefer Plato instead, but my mother's favourite philosopher is Socrates so I've heard much about him! :wink: When we were in Greece, Athens, we even went to the graveyard to try to find him somewhere (we didn't) :lol: We even named my dog after Socrates! :lol:

nolah 22. December 2007, 15:39

Well, we know Socrates mainly because of Plato, so he is one of my favourites too. But as I had to translate his texts in my Ancient Greece class, I don't like him quite as much. :wink:
That dog is really cute! :smile:

MizzMartinez 22. December 2007, 17:16

Did you have to take Greek in school? I thought that only greeks and italians did that! :right:

About the dog being cute..well, he must be having me as his owner! :lol: p:

nolah 23. December 2007, 10:17

No, we didn't have to. But I liked it more than French... :D That's why I learned English, Latin and Ancient Greek in school.

MizzMartinez 23. December 2007, 10:24

I see! Coolio! :headbang: :smile:

DominicTran 2. March 2008, 18:47

Wow, Socrate's famous quotation:"You do know yourself!". One time, when he's thinking deeply, his wife complained sth... but he kept silent, she cried... he also kept silent, ... she cried louderly and jumped crudly, but his mouth did't open! ... "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWW', his wife threw a washinh basin of water on his head... He replied calmly with a smile: " I know, after series of thunder, it rains...":smile:

nolah 2. March 2008, 21:20

Yay, that's a fun story! Socrates was the best. :D

Write a comment

You must be logged in to write a comment. If you're not a registered member, please sign up.

November 2009
M T W T F S S
October 2009December 2009
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30

About Me

  • Liebeskummer-Forum

    Genauer: Mein Thread im Forum, entstand in den Anfängen der Wall-Story

  • OkCupid!

    If you'd like to know what tests I took etc. you would sure like to visit my profile on OkCupid!.

  • Neopets

    My profile at Neopets. You can visit my pet's homepages from there.

  • Last.fm

    On this profile of mine you can see what music I like, or what I heard recently.

  • Studiverzeichnis

    Ok, man kann mein Profil nur als Mitglied sehen... Also: Mitglied werden! ;-)