The Philosopher in the Agora

Abstract

We know little of what the historical Socrates really said and did when performing his “gadfly” role in Athens. Nonetheless, if the Apology is to be accepted as a true account of his views, he gave a clear account of the role of the public intellectual, and on more than one occasion (again if Plato’s rendering of his views is to be credited) he claimed to be the only true statesman in Athens.¹ Yet, he famously claimed to know nothing, and thus seemed to undermine the authority he was simultaneously claiming. He is an obvious choice as a “significant other” for any discussion of John Stuart Mill’s role in the public life of Victorian England; of historical figures to whom the label of “public intellectual” might plausibly be applied, Mill was philosophically one of the best equipped. He also translated several Platonic dialogues, never spoke less than admiringly of Plato, and regarded the execution of Socrates as a moral disaster fit only to be compared to the Crucifixion.² Like Socrates, Mill was emphatic that much that we think we know is either mistaken or not really known, and his standard of justified belief - the ability to defend our beliefs against the best arguments against them - is decidedly Socratic. Unlike Socrates, Mill not only thought he knew much that the public could benefit from sharing, in logic, ethics, and political economy, but also set out to teach it to them.