Socrates the seer: the transposition of divination into the philosophical vocation of the Platonic Socrates
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14409/argos.2025.54.e0083Keywords:
Socrates, Phaedo, Apology, Mantiké, MousikéAbstract
The aim of the present paper is to show the role that μαντική plays, in the Apology and the Phaedo, within Socrates’ philosophical vocation. By philosophical vocation I mean the adoption of a philosophical way of life that also seeks to exhort others to imitate it. It will be shown that μαντική appears in these dialogues closely connected with μουσική, both as Apollonian arts: Plato transposes the religious tradition by presenting his master as a seer who ultimately grounds his divinations in a philosophical manner and who sings a μουσική that is, in truth, a philosophy of life to be followed. Socrates emerges as a seer who provides a philosophical justification for divinatory discourse.
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