Socrates' Last Error

The first major problem in Miroslav Ivanovic's "Socrates' Last Error" is that he does not give enough credit to the irony and creativity of Socrates' arguments. Ivanovic seeks to categorize into a entirely and exclusively legal or rational argument. In doing so, he ignores the spiritual aspects of Socrates argument, the deliberate contradictions, the irony, even the good-hearted humor.

Socrates is presenting a masterful painting of life and truth and the relationship of the just man to the city in which he lives, and Ivanovic is deconstructing and categorizing that masterpiece in little chunks to fit his preconceived notion of what Socrates is trying to do. To Ivanovic, Socrates is simply making a legal brief, or a logical argument.

However, it is clear that Socrates is after far more serious and profound goals than merely presenting syllogisms or logically connecting dots or quoting legal precedent. Socrates is mapping out the human soul, and Ivanovic is focusing on the pencil Socrates is using.

If we are to take Ivanovic at face value and accept his premise, he is correct, or at least there is a kind of legal or logical truth in his argument: there are some errors of logical in Socrates' argument, and therefore his argument is not entirely rational.

To be fair to Ivanovic, his argument is not entirely meaningless, despite its limitations, because, after all, Socrates does champion the principle of rational thought throughout Crito, and therefore an argument whi

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Category: Philosophy - S