For Socrates, philosophy is not like Christian conversion from error to truth, but rather it is like the pagan process whereby a young man is initiated into cult mysteries by a more experienced man - the mystagogos - who prepares him and leads him to the sacred precinct. In Greek cult religion, the mystagogos prepared the initiate for the esoteric mysteries revealed by the hierophant. Socrates treats traditional wisdom with scepticism, and this makes him appear ridiculous or dangerous in the eyes of cultural conservatives. Nevertheless, his scepticism is not radical: custom is not something on which we must turn our backs if we are to pursue the truth. Socrates assumes an epistemology and employs a method by which he induces his companions to begin the critical and self-critical process of philosophical inquiry, not ignoring conventional wisdom, but thinking through and reinterpreting it as they make constructive progress towards the truth. He provides conclusive and convincing arguments in support of controversial answers to some of the most important moral questions he poses.

About the Author
Don Adams received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Reed College and from there went directly to Cornell University, where he studied with Terence Irwin, Gail Fine, and Norman Kretzmann. His Ph.D. dissertation was a comparative study of love and friendship in the moral theories of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas. He has taught logic and the history of European philosophy - especially ancient Greek philosophy - at about half a dozen colleges and universities across the United States. He is currently Professor of Philosophy at Central Connecticut State University.

Reviews

"How should we think about what Socrates is doing when he engages this or that youth in conversation? Don Adams' book offers an answer to this question, inspired by an ancient Greek religious ritual: Socrates is on a mystagogic mission to sting his interlocutor into an epistemological state of inquiry ... Socrates Mystagogos: Initiation into Inquiry is a thought-provoking defense of Socratic practice that will be of interest to a mixed, if not quite well-defined, scholarly audience."

- Andreas Avgousti, Columbia University, USA, in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2017

Book Information
ISBN 9780367595869
Author Don Adams
Format Paperback
Page Count 190
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 370g