Aristophanes presents a very abstract Socrates in The Clouds. When he is first introduced, Socrates is sitting in a basket hanging from the ceiling. Strepsiades then asks him what he is doing. Socrates responds with, “ I tread on air and contemplate the sun.” He is portrayed as a new-age/post-modern type of character – one that is absolutely in love with nature.

Socrates’ “gods” are the Clouds. He refutes Strep’s argument for Zeus by arguing that thunder is just a cloud-fart. It’s pretty phenomenal logic. Strep is completely overwhelmed by Socrates’ rhetoric and “compelling” argumentation – so much so that he asks Socrates to teach him how to get away with cheating others. This scene makes the reader question Socrates’ morality.

Socrates is a teacher. He doesn’t, however, care about the content of what he’s teaching his students, or how they’re going to use the knowledge he gives them. A true teacher would have to have a moral fabric, or a least some sense of morality. Socrates doesn’t. Aristophanes’ allows the reader to see his opinion when he delivers the speeches of the “Just” and “Unjust” speeches. Not only do both Aristophanes and Socrates declare the second speech “unjust,” but they also call it the weaker speech. Socrates essentially claims an amoral standpoint here. He inadvertently disregards all virtues and replaces them with an extremely existential and subjective view on the world.

Even though Socrates disregards any essence of morality, the reader must respect him to a certain extent because he is extremely good at his profession. Although I doubt many will argue that he is doing something “useful” with his life, there are those of good stature that could learn a great deal from Socrates. In today’s world, we have the same issues and problems of this “weaker” argument, and too many people disregard the just and virtuous paths for others. If Socrates was to teach a man of reputation and honor, (i.e. a King David figure) than the reader would have a much harder time disregarding Socrates. However, Aristophanes only provides the audience with one example, and in this case, one would be hard-pressed to admire what he was doing.

Aristophanes presents Socrates as a flaming hippie because The Clouds is, above all else, a parody. Aristophanes isn’t necessarily making a moral argument, or even a scholarly argument against Socrates’ teachings, but instead, he chooses to create a sarcastic, humorous hyperbole focusing on the negative consequences that could come from Socrates’ influence... and it is fairly humorous.