SOURCE: Anselment, Raymond A. “Socrates and The Clouds: Shaftesbury and a Socratic Tradition.” Journal of the History of Ideas 39, no. 2 (April-June 1978): 171-82.

In the following essay, Anselment discusses Shaftesbury's views on the impact of Aristophanes' The Clouds on the trial, imprisonment, and execution of Socrates.

Among the many eighteenth-century reactions to Shaftesbury's Characteristics the issue of Aristophanes' role in the condemnation of Socrates provoked considerable controversy. Shaftesbury had cited Aristophanes' attack against the philosopher to argue that Socrates' reputation and philosophy were enhanced rather than diminished after he had been “most abominably ridiculed, in a whole comedy writ and acted on purpose.”¹ Critics of the Characteristics, however, were not always willing to agree that truth and virtue can “stand the test of ridicule” unscathed. Though many believed “The Comedy inscribed the CLOUDS is an execrable attempt to expose one of the wisest and best of Men to the...