An idiot concerned with the truth: Socrates and idiocy

Abstract

When reading the Platonic dialogues, there is a moment when one feels that the character of Socrates speaks and acts like an idiot with his interlocutors. A moment when, faced with his perplexities, clumsiness, and ridiculousness, one wonders: why does Socrates so frequently show difficulties of comprehension in his questioning? Why does he sometimes say absurd things and behave extravagantly and childishly? Why does he give examples and comparisons where one cannot be entirely sure what he is driving at? Why does he tend to expose himself to ridicule and be the object of mocking? Is he an idiot, or merely acting like one? This article examines several passages in Plato’s text to explore how Socrates’s behaviour is related to stupidity. It argues that speaking and behaving like an idiot are some of the many strategies that Socrates employs to expose the folly of the empty conceit of wisdom of his interlocutors. To support this hypothesis, I examine the image of Socrates that Plato presents to us through the gaze of some of his main interlocutors, such as Hippias, Callicles, Alcibiades, and Thrasymachus, characters who present themselves as mirrors to reveal Socrates’s relationship with idiocy.