/lit/ - Literature

Skeptical how?

>>6558823
Yes he was an atheist who pretended to worship the Gods just to protect himself.
>too damn many GODS

>>6558829
In the Euthyphro he questions the goodness of the gods.

>>6558823
in the apology he mentions "The God" (singular)

>>6558823
> he seems pretty enlightened by his own intelligence
I hope you are being ironic...

>>6558873
This. The daimon he brings up in the Apology is no different than philosophic Eros (see Eros as daimonic in the Symposium; cf. the view he brings up in several dialogues that all he knows is erotics, like in the Symposium, Phaedrus, Lysis, and Theages; cf. how erotics and the daimon are interchangeable in the Theages).

>>6558823
>any smart person from antiquity must have been an atheist

...

>>6559009
I think this whole OP is a reddit meta-parody.
The same reddit faction that brought the quote you posted is famous for the line:

>Socrates died for this shit!

apropos posting atheist memes

>>6559009
I stopped taking him seriously after that point too. At least it was Kek worthy

>>6559041
>>6559050

I think it must be a joke; the problem is though that there seem to be real atheists who sincerely think this way.

>>6559032
The philosopher Anaxagoras, an associate of the major Athenian statesman Pericles, had to flee Athens because of a charge of atheism (which was likely true, and which Socrates brings up in the Apology).

The sophist Protagoras was also notorious for having two teachings, one which feigned deference to the gods, and another that was atheistic.

>>6559068

(same poster)

That said, it would be simplistic to say that Socrates *died* for atheism. He was put to death for other reasons, one of which may have been teaching unsavory political figures (Alcibiades, Critias, Charmides) his manner of questioning, which easily could lead to questioning of the gods of the city (and so also of the laws of the city).

>>6559068
I am complaining about a tendency by some to retroactively, and moreover with little evidence, claim that some smart theist from antiquity was actually an atheist simply because thy can't fathom anyone of intelligence believing in a deity or deities.

>>6559083
It could also be the whole Philosopher King bit. Although I've also seen debate that it is a ~Platonic~ concept rather than ~Socratic~.

>>6559083
>it would be simplistic to say that Socrates *died* for atheism.

It would be inaccurate because atheism in antiquity was often just a vacuous pejorative; for instance, despite obviously not being so, the Romans accused early Christians of being atheists. To be skeptical of a particular brand of polytheism does not make one a atheist, particularly if the individual may hold to a different conception of divinity as was the case with Socrates and the early Christians.

>>6559092
Which is fair.

>>6559110
Maybe; it's certainly the case that the Athenians most in support of the democracy were suspicious of anyone who even seemed to be like the sophists, especially in their claims about the many and the few.

>>6559111
This is true in part, but it ignores what was even controversial about ancient philosophical claims about God or the Gods. Xenophanes' god is a god only in name, but that's the problem for the religious in the ancient world. They saw exactly what sort of transformation was being done when a philosopher or sophist made a claim about a god that reduced it to a kind of material cause, but still kept the name god attached to it.

(This also ignores the significance of Herodotus' claims in his Histories when he suggests that Homer and Hesiod invented the Greek pantheon. There were in fact figures in antiquity who tried to explain the whole of the cosmos through a kind of rough mechanistic causal explanation; this is noted in the Phaedo when Socrates talks about his turn from Anaxagoras whose book sought to do exactly that.)

>>6558823
>enlightened by his own intelligence
holy shit lol