Socrates' Other Side

Aristophanes’ Clouds depicts Socrates as a man who negatively influences those around him and aids to the deterioration of society through leadership. Aristophanes first introduces Socrates at a thinkery at which Socrates presides. This first view imparted was not laced with the sarcasm that became predominant later, but instead just a few comments are made that most would consider inappropriate (potty language). These comments foreshadow the expression of distaste that Aristophanes has for Socrates and his thought processes. Socrates did indeed offer many ideas that were out of the academic norm in his time period, but Aristophanes renders him as a man who pries the beliefs from the multitudes instead of providing alternatives. Socrates takes no time to turn down Strepsiades’ beliefs in the gods with unfounded logic. This is Aristophanes’ way of conveying the idea that Socrates warped the minds of multitudes through clever language that replaced true logic. After all, his thinkery was the go to place to learn such deceit. Strepsiades is easily manipulated by Socrates and continues to comment throughout the story that Vortex overthrew Zeus. His insistence on something he merely misunderstood parallels what Aristophanes believes people take away from Socrates works in that they often do not grasp the bigger picture and get caught up in details. Socrates approach entails a big picture focus in that his “weaker” speech provokes the stronger speaker to frustration due to the removal of focus to the facets of the argument. This approach is sought after by Strepsiades as more important than the stronger speech which relies on logic based on details. Strepsiades asks Socrates to teach Pheidippides the weaker and more deceiving speech if he only has time for one. This yearning for deceit is very immoral and is noted by Aristophanes to be a poor decision that negatively influences society. He notes that Socrates has the potential to guide the masses from developing honest and founded arguments and worries. Humanity is constantly searching for a faster or easier way to complete tasks, and shortcuts such as fraudulent speech could lead society to ruin regardless how clever. Through this position, one can see that Aristophanes deems Socrates methods not only useless, but also potentially harmful. From all my readings on Socrates, I recall no viewpoints oriented as Aristophanes is. His critical analysis is very interesting in that he doesn’t allow Socrates a handicap for the limited scientific knowledge from which he could draw from. He also considers Socrates’ ideas as invalid from the start and downplays his ability to mold the minds of his audience. Aristophanes view of Socrates is similar to Socrates’ out of the ordinary philosophical views. Language is powerful enough to guide masses without any basis whatsoever and without previous knowledge of Socrates, I would have thought him to be a insolent thinker—all due to Aristophanes utilization of humor and clever words.