You all may have noticed my post signature, I just thought I would explain what I think it means.
The Republic is all about Justice. When Socrates is put to death with hemlock, Asclepius is the God of medicine and to bring in some of Derrida's thought here, that means Asclepius is the God of poisons and cures. Just as Socrates is dying, he upholds the value of justice as an ideal and requests that the God who this 'remedy for life' aka poison, be given a cock in return and so all is just and good as Socrates departs this world.
This is an example of Socrates life-denial - a tainted view of the physical world in favor of a world of forms, the ideal of justice is more real than the materialisation of justice in this world.
After reading Caputo's essay on the Trace of religion, this is another example of how justice is always calling to us, we are constantly responding to it and it is like a projectile coming towards us right until the moment of death.
We owe a cock to Asclepius
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- kFoyauextlH
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Re: We owe a cock to Asclepius
Last edited by kFoyauextlH on Sat Sep 13, 2025 8:47 am, edited 2 times in total.
- atreestump
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Re: We owe a cock to Asclepius
It is said he had nothing much to live for at that point though, considering his wife was a shrew or nag according to tales, the people generally hated him save a few, and he was old, fat, and ugly apparently
I do recall some anecdotes about how Plato was probably the only person present when Socrates died, so the paintings of his death are entirely of Plato's imagination.
You may want this for a separate thread but, if you had a final lesson to teach, what would it be?
Final words, final lesson, and in Socrates situation, what would you do?
I like Keirkegaard's last words: 'Sweep me up!' hahahaha
Last lesson, that's a tough one, only cliches are appearing at the moment.
- kFoyauextlH
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