Poetry and Philosophy
Beckett, Mischa
This study argues that Aristophanes' Clouds offers a serious critique of Socrates and a coherent two part attack on Socratic philosophy. The first prong of the attack, that Socrates was a natural philosopher, provides the basis for the second prong, the rhetorical charge that Socrates makes the weaker argument the stronger. This rhetorical and scientific understanding of philosophy allows Aristophanes to argue that Socrates undermines the fami...