The Noble Philosophical Life

Socrates is the main character of Four Texts on Socrates and Socrates' most distinctive personality feature is his unrelentingly pursuit of truth. He is not merely interested in the pursuit of some particular truth, such as an answer to a scientific problem or a quest to solve a theological worry. Instead, he is interested in truth per se. He engages in all manner of inquiry, physics and astronomy when younger but more 'pure' philosophical topics as he ages. Socrates is interested in metaphysics, or the study of what exists, epistemology, or the study of what knowledge is and when we possess it. He is interested in aesthetics, or the nature of beauty and in moral philosophy, or the nature of the right and the good. Socrates also has a concern with justice, the subject of political philosophy. His philosophical concerns also cover the philosophy of...