Socrates was a famous Greek philosopher, who was known as one of the founders of western philosophy. Unfortunately, he never wrote down any of his ideas for his later generations. So most of the understanding of his work comes from other people’s description. (Coram&O’Maley 2017,p.7) Meanwhile there are two different portrayals of Socrates, one is the Apology came from Plato who was a student of Socrates, the other one is the Clouds produced by an Athenian comic playwright called Aristophanes.
This essay will argue that Plato’s representation of Socrates is likely to be more accurate than Aristophanes’.
First of all, Plato was an outstanding student of Socrates, and the Apology was one of his early works”. The early dialogues (such as the Apology) are thought to accurately reflect Socrates’ actual teachings. “(Coram&O’Maley 2017,p.7) Therefore, the statements in Apology are more likely to be Socrate’s own words. Based on that argument, Socrates mentions that the figure of himself be presented in the Clouds is un- real, and the play is full of nonsense, (Plato, Apology ex 19c) which indicates that Aristophanes’ representation of Socrates is lack of reliability.
Plus, Aristophanes was a comic playwright. His most of works combine rudeness and foolish situations with political humor to satirize some social phenomenons, (O’Maley, 2017, p 5) which lead to making the description become too dramatic and lose its authenticity. Undeniably, there is possibility that Plato might make some mistakes when he was recording Socrate’s words, however, the Apology is still express Socrate’s own thoughts, it should be more accurate and reliable in general.
What’s more, Plato’s representation is more consistent with the idea that Socrates was a philosopher. Socrates discusses about wisdom in his defense, which is one of the most significant topic in philosophy that ‘Real wisdom belongs to the god, and this oracle is his way of telling us that human wisdom has little or no value’. Plato, Apol- ogy ex 23a) Socrates, one of the wisest man of his time, believing himself to be igno- rant. (Plato, Apology ex 21b) This statement accords with his philosophy that knowledge is come from questioning and discussing with others.
However, on the other hand, the Cloud presents a foolish and rude figure of Socrates in a comic way. He comes on the stage by hanging in a basket and claiming himself is walking in the air. (Aristophanes, Clouds ex 259-269) It seems to be so silly and weird if you see a philosophy doing that. ‘Would you like to hold a conversation,face to face, with our gods, the Clouds?’ (Aristophanes, Clouds ex 293-294) Socrates in the play also be- lieve that clouds is their god, which is completely opposite to the fact that cloud is just a natural phenomenon. It also against that philosopher should always stick to the truth.
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