FM> I remain disposed, many times, to divide the world of people into the
 FM> Socrates and the Callicratics.  As Voegelin remarks, Socrates had warned
 FM> in the earlier Platonic accounts of the trial and execution of Socrates
 FM> that "others will come."  In the Gorgias, "others" have come and the
 FM> debate continues in all of its deadliness.  I hope you noted that.
 FM> ....which Jesus is made to say, "depart from me, I never knew you to the
 FM> goats who thought they were sheep."
 DM> Once I realized that a debate of *serious concern* had slipped by me
 DM> almost unnoticed, I thought we'd come back to it. Are you saying that
 DM> such a *FOCUSED* binary good/evil circumstance has been and still is
 DM> active (a war for the heart of man); that the Socrates trial comes down
 DM> through history as its metaphor- ....even that "the sons of evil and
 DM> sons of darkness" is a very REAL symbology, somewhat masked in the
 DM> everyday of words? OR were you just referring to "Plato v Sophist" then,
 DM> and through the ages? It was the word "deadly" that caught my attention
 DM> ...and teases my confusion.....?
 DM> Whether I disagree or not is unimportant, but would appreciate your-
 DM> 'an extended take on it'.  Until convinced otherwise, I
   I think you have missed the point, David, considerably.  The call in both
instances is for real self-examination sub specie mortis. In the everyday 
ife
interaction it is quite easy to fool people as to the kind of person one is
but the self-examination being discussed in both instances (under different
cultures) is one in which a life has been lived and (is BEING LIVED) and as 
n
that Myth of the Judgement, "more recently in the age of Zeus" the judges 
ave
their clothes off and the one to be judged has HIS clothes off so that 
OTHING
is hidden from beginning to end - everything is seen clearly in the ancient
symbolic purgatory delineated by Plato.  Thus, the judgement can be fair and
truthful because it is one that the ONE BEING JUDGED HAS ACTUALLY PRONOUNED
UPON HIMSELF.  Whether or not you choose to agree with an ancient myth is
hardly the major issue.  What is important, I think, is to understand what is
being said.  Socrates advises life lived under the aspect of death.  One is
free, of course, NOT to do that. Many wouldn't think of it.  I readily 
onfess
that *I* wasn't thinking of it much in my twenties.  In the first place, the
"myth" as told by Plato is a "conscious" myth used to point up an experienced
truth.  As I've mentioned before, Ecclesiastes ALSO advises hanging around
funeral homes and in that marvelous symbolism of the 12th chapter brings it
clearly home to us elderly folk whose suns are declining.  
Sincerely, 
                                     Frank
                                                                              
                                                       
--- PPoint 2.05
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