Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper reinterprets the Socratic problem through the lens of image and power, arguing that the historical Socrates is best understood not as the originator of a philosophical method or doctrine but as a powerful ethical image whose authority reshaped the meaning of philosophy itself. Rather than attempting to reconstruct a system of propositions from Plato’s early dialogues, I contend that the genre of the logoi sokratikoi reveals something more significant: the construction and deployment of the image of Socrates as a vehicle of intellectual and moral influence. Plato’s Apology, constrained by its historical setting and its claim to eyewitness testimony, provides the closest access to Socrates’ self-presentation. There, Socrates emerges not as a methodological thinker but as a protreptic figure whose power lies in exhortation and example. Central to this self-fashioning is the story of the Delphic Oracle. By presenting himself as divinely commissioned yet ignorant, Socrates crafts an image of paradoxical authority—human wisdom grounded in acknowledged ignorance. This image operates as a form of power: it legitimizes his public mission, unsettles Athenian political authority, and displaces traditional claims to expertise. The divergence between Plato’s and Xenophon’s versions of the Oracle further demonstrates how competing representations of Socrates reflect differing investments in the power of his character. Finally, by situating Socrates within the older tradition of the Seven Sages, the paper shows that his enduring influence derives less from doctrinal content than from the symbolic and cultural power of his image as a sage. Across Greek, Roman, Christian, and Islamic traditions, Socrates functions as an exemplar whose authority lies in embodied practice rather than in a theoretical system. The Socratic problem thus becomes not merely a question about historical reconstruction but an inquiry into how philosophical power operates through image, narrative, and cultural memory.
Source: Analiza i Egzystencja
Author: Geoff Bowe
Institution: Istanbul Technical University
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225389072