Spring 2011: Prior to our review, the
Editor introduces the book :
Every so often, the
publishing industry drops a blockbuster into the little pool of
philosophical writing. Such was the case with The Hemlock Cup,
Book of the Week, on BBC Radio 4 in December 2010. The response was
ecstatic:
'Bettany Hughes has done it again;
she brings to life not only Socrates himself but the whole of Periclean
Athens. Here is a work of dazzling erudition which remains hugely
readable - what more can one ask' John Julius Norwich
'From the ancient Greek world's most
beautiful woman to one of its self-acknowledged ugliest men is quite a
step, but one that Hughes accomplishes without breaking strides or
pausing for breath, Her enormous energy and enthusiasm are infectious.
She writes up a storm. At the end of the road we may not be any closer
to certainty or closure on the biggest issues of Socrates' inordinately
rich life and afterlife but, as with the search for the historical
Alexander or Jesus, travelling hopefully is quite possibly as good, and
as much fun, as arriving. The journey is the reward. No one
before Bettany Hughes, a highly accomplished communicator, has thought
to weave Socrates' examined life into quite so rich and dense a
tapestry of democratic Athens' teeming high-culture and mundane
experience. The good life is an elusive concept but, however
defined, arguably no search for it would be dangerously impeded by
buying this handsome volume and reading it through, critically, as
Bettany Hughes' Socrates would have devoutly wished.' Professor
Paul Cartledge, The Independent
'Riveting, passionate and learned...The
Hemlock Cup is a biography of Socrates, and also a lot more than
that...As she unfolds the tale, she brings us an edited history of
fifth-century BC Athens, too. This isn't padding, or even scene-setting
(atmospheric though it always is). Without overstating the case, she
shows how the city's life runs alongside the philosopher's, and then
takes a different course... There's some terrific and passionate
writing about a philosopher whose heroism is unquestionable (though
that heroism resides in a constant questioning); and as lively and
learned an introduction to classical Athens as you could want.' Tom
Payne, Telegraph
Bettany Hughes' terrifically readable life
of the philosopher, The Hemlock Cup, is more than just a life;
it is also an evocation and an explanation of the world that created
this extraordinary figure. The
Hemlock Cup makes a vivid and persuasive case for the study of
Socrates as a valuable means to understanding how our way of thinking
about our own world came to be, and a guide to how we might understand
it better.' Daniel Hahn, Independent on Sunday
'The Hemlock Cup is another vibrant
and atmospheric work from this well-known promoter of the ancient
world'...this is an exciting book that puts the reader into the
footsteps of Athenians of the 5th century BC' Dr. Michael
Scott, BBC History Magazine
'After over thirty years of reading
philosophical books and articles on Socrates (and even writing some of
them!) it is very refreshing to see him approached from the perspective
of his material and cultural environment. It anchors and illuminates
the nature of his mission and achievements and really brings the period
alive' Professor Angie Hobbes, Philosopher, Senior Fellow in
the Public Understanding of Philosophy
'Hughes cleverly extracts the man from the
dramatic scene-setting in the Platonic dialogues and puts him in his
life and times by reconstructing ancient Athens and putting the same
questions to us that he puts to adherents and fellow citizens. Hughes
credits two editors for saving her from 'extreme colloquialism' but
enough survives to give this intelligent, bright-eyed, vigorous book a
life as vibrant as that lived by its subject.' The Times
'Hughes conjures up the life in which
Socrates worked and lived.'...This book will come as a revelation to
most of my brothers and sisters in the philosophical community' Nightwaves,
BBC Radio 3
'An ambitious book, taking us through the 70
years of Socrates' life during one of the most exciting moments in
world history...its scholarship is impeccable and Hughes' command of
the sources daunting' Sp!ked Review of Books
'Hughes's beguiling prose draws the reader
into the devices and desires of the world's first democratic regime,
and a Mediterranean world of sex, violence, sympotic carousing and
great man-made beauty. She does full justice - as perhaps the Athenian
People did not! - to the religious and philosophical endeavours of a
unique career fatally shadowed by the ultimately disastrous
Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE). All that - and a beautifully produced
book too' Professor P Cartledge, Professor of Greek History,
Cambridge University
'Bettany Hughes breathes life into Socrates,
the thinker Athens both revered and condemned. Socrates' has benefitted
from Hughes' considerable skills...Hughes' expert attempts to make him
flesh and blood, to fill in the gap, do him no harm. They teach us
about the value of the real as well as the philosophical.' The
Scotsman
So it is that the life of her hero becomes a
peg from which to hang a vivid depiction of Athens in its golden age,
from the pinnacle of its greatness to the abyss of its ultimate
defeat... Hughes's prose is the literary equivalent of CGI, re-creating
for the reader a sense of the clamour and dazzle of the classical city
that has rarely been bettered. Not only that, she is expert in knowing
when to alter and vary her focus. Sometimes we are led by her through
the streets of modern Athens, sometimes across an archaeological site,
and sometimes down into the basement of a provincial museum, where rare
treasures lie hidden. She spares no effort in bringing the world of
Socrates alive. Describing Athens amid the death-agonies of the
Peloponnesian war, Hughes comments that it "must have been reminiscent
of Kabul 2002-10: ragged, war-torn, veiled women in the streets with no
husbands, brothers or sons". Hers is an ancient Greece that is
authentically cutting-edge.' Tom Holland, Observer
She does a very good job of re-creating the
material world in which Socrates lived, presenting ancient Athens as a
much gaudier, dirtier, smellier and in some respects more industrial
place than we often imagine. She is up to date on recent archaeological
discoveries ...and she is full of vivid descriptions of what many of
the famous landmarks look like to the modern visitor: run-down, and
littered with fag ends and Coca-Cola cans. She can also be
realistically unsentimental about the culture of classical Athens...she
writes frankly of the nastiness of the world in which Socrates grew up
and lived.' Mary Beard The Sunday Times
'One can plunge enthusiastically into the
seething world inhabited by Socrates that she recreates for us...This
is the grand sweep of Athenian history during its most politically
inventive and culturally exciting period...It all makes for a rich
mixture; Socrates' early days as a keen natural scientist, his military
career, his growing sense of what is important in life, his political
scrapes, and his execution are played out in the company of Plato,
Xenophon, Pericles, Alcibiades, Aristophanes, Aspasia, free men and
slaves, shoemakers and sculptors, intellectuals and thugs ? a cast of
millions ? against a backdrop of Athens with its markets, back streets,
military engagements, theatrical performances, plague, triumph and
disaster. Channel 4 must be licking its lips. It will make irresistible
television' Peter Jones, Literary Review
What then can mere
philosophers add? The publisher urges readers to contact them with
feedback, saying 'Socrates would have insisted on it'. So we shall. Here
is a thought-provoking review article by Peter Hubral.
The Hemlock Cup by Bettany Hughes: the
first and second sentence inside the cover of the book read:
We think the way we do because Socrates
thought the way we did!
The unexamined life is not worth living ..
is the founding principle of modern life.
Both statements are in complete disagreement
with my own conclusions about Socrates and the ancient Greeks and other
traditional cultures that disappeared from the globe (Why?).
Ask yourself: How did Socrates examine his life?
By confining himself to what I call Principle 1?
Being (i.e. the world surrounding us)
determines consciousness.
We think the way we do because Socrates
thought the way we did!
or to what I call Principle 2?
Consciousness (including the five
senses) can be expanded to increasingly enhance what is.
The unexamined life is not worth living .. is
the founding principle of modern life.
My answer:
Socrates examined his life with Principle 2
and not Principle 1, which Hughes employs to interpret him. The Greeks
called what results from employing Principle 1 to explain what is
attained from Principle 2 mythos.
In other words Betty Hughes produces mythos,
just like the Chassids and - I am afraid to say - all of us that
rely on Principle 1.
Principle 1 is - as the reader may recognise -
a statement made by Karl Marx. Nearly all the world confines itself to
it: scientists, philosophers, politicians, etc. It provides the
familiar knowledge, which is based on numerous hypotheses that all
cannot be proven (e.g. division between the living and non-living, the
belief that language is sufficient to understand the world, the belief
that all events are causal and happen in space in time, mathematical
axioms, etc.).
There is no certain knowledge available from Principle 1.
Principle 2, on the other hand, can be
verified by philosophical contemplation ? quintessentially
Tao-Meditation. As I argue in my article on the
links between Socrates and Eastern philosophy, Tao-Meditation
provides unfamiliar knowledge not by assumptions (hypotheses) but by
recollection. The Greeks (e.g. Socrates) and other traditional cultures
employed it. What is attained from it results from the assumption that
no assumption is to be made: Wuwei-principle. This provides
universal eternal knowledge (gnosis).
Principle 2 provides ? which may appear
strange to non-practitioners - as much knowledge as Principle 1, but of
another kind. Principle 1 leads to what is erroneously called by those
who do employ it objective knowledge and Principle 2 is called by them
subjective knowledge.
As you observe, already the first two
sentences of The Hemlock Cup tell me, what the rest of the
book is all about: Assumptions, beliefs and fantasies about how
beautiful and perfect we humans apparently are and that we all
inherited this from the brilliant ancient Greeks. Who doesn't want to
hear things like this to please his ego? Who doesn't want to be told
that he is perfect and all the problems in the world are created by
others (e.g. non-believers)?
Now imagine that I would attempt to feature
Socrates in the way I indicate here to the masses? Would people
consider me crazy, a doomsday prophet? The Chassids and many other
religionists would consider me a heretic. Maybe you grasp now, why
Socrates was forced to drink the hemlock cup.
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