The Final Days of Socrates: On Imitating Socrates and Jesus

Death of Socrates [Public Domain]

The Final Days of Socrates: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo by Plato
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Four of Plato's dialogues (a tetralogy), Euthyphro, The Apology, Crito, and Phaedo, outline Socrates' final days before he ended his life by drinking hemlock - his sentence for 'impiety' and 'corrupting' Athens' youth. The similarities to the death of Jesus and the underpinnings of Stoic philosophy were not lost on me.

Reading the original works, rather than relying on the snippets of Plato taught through secondary sources, reveals contradictions and oversimplifications of key ideas. For example, 'the unexamined life is not worth living' is a snippet. The important first part of the sentence refers to the 'divine command' that drives Socrates, and that 'the greatest good of man [sic] is daily to converse about virtue' (Apology, p. 49). Hardly the navel-gazing and identity politics approach that is encouraged by the snippet. Indeed, examining one's life against the virtues requires much more than fitting in with the opinion of the many (a problem Socrates warns about in Crito, p. 56).

The parallels with the last days of Jesus include the symbolism of three days before the ship arrives from Delos (signalling the time for Socrates to die), and also Socrates' vision that he will go to the mythical city of Phthia in three days ('The third day hence, to Phthia shalt thou go', Crito, p. 56). This coincides with Socrates' faith in an afterlife, echoing Jesus' death and subsequent resurrection. In Phaedo there are echoes of the Garden of Eden and the captivity in Babylon (p. 99) and of being 'born again' (p. 83).

Ideas that were later captured in Stoicism are evident in Phaedo. For example, not trusting our perceptions to our senses (p. 99), that philosophy is about practising to die well (p. 97), that suicide is an option (Phaedo, p. 74), and one's ruling principle comes from the soul (p. 112).

Key to Stoic philosophy are the four virtues: Wisdom, Courage, Temperance, and Justice. For Socrates, the virtues are Temperance, Justice, Courage, Nobility, and Truth (Phaedo, p.135).

The coinciding themes of Christianity and Stoicism are captured in the closing pages of Phaedo, notably that, for the 'immortal soul' (p. 128):

...there is no release or salvation from evil except the attainment of the highest virtue and wisdom.

This tetralogy left me rather stunned that, despite how far humans have advanced in technology, we owe much of our spiritual development to the ancients. Those currently virtue-signalling in Australian politics would benefit from testing their contemporary sense of virtue with the wise Socrates.

Benjamin Franklin's Virtues Journal suggests that to practice humility, one should imitate Jesus and Socrates. In light of this work, Franklin's comparison is well justified.

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Goulburn Waterworks: Revisiting Networked Technologies

Goulburn Historic Waterworks, 29 May 2022.

The Goulburn Waterworks is a fascinating heritage conservation project that is:

...the only complete, operational, steam powered municipal water supply, left in its original location in the Southern Hemisphere.

On a cold but gorgeous winter day on the Southern Tablelands, we visited the site of the pre-Covid Steampunk Festival.

The only Appleby Bros Beam Engine left in the world, decommissioned in 1918 after 32 years' service 

The first thing we noticed was the Fireman's Cottage. This house accommodated the fireman and his family. The boilers ran 24/7 and required constant supervision. The local CWA provided a warm cup of tea on a cold day at the Pumphouse cafe, an old school building from Taralga.

Horizontal engine by Hick, Hargreaves & Co., England, 1866 

The horizontal engine manufactured by Hick, Hargreaves & Co. in Bolton, England in 1866 is one of three remaining in the world. Apparently, the Museum of Historic Engines was the precursor to the Waterworks Museum, so this engine was moved here for restoration in 1970. The engine was still functioning when we arrived late in the afternoon.

I've always wondered what the Waterworks was about. It provided running (reticulated) water for Goulburn from 1886 using a steam-operated beam engine until this was replaced by an electric pump in 1918. The Waterworks provided water for Goulburn (via a filtration plant and a reservoir) until 1977.

I often feel we have lost touch with how much effort went into providing the utilities we now come to expect. But given the contemporary decarbonisation project we have inevitably embarked upon, I daresay there is much we can learn from the pioneers of networked technologies and their legacies that have fortunately been preserved in Goulburn.

For more information, check out the Goulburn Historic Waterworks Museum website.

Fake Independents?

Independents or Teal Party?

In addition to the pro-Labor voting habits of so-called 'fake independents' (Voting record sparks warning on 'fake independents', The Australian, 7 April 2022), the number of 'fake' independents funded by Climate 200 is cause for concern.

Despite claims that Climate 200's funding comes with 'no strings attached', there is a clear ideological agenda that permeates the platforms of members of what is effectively a 'political party in disguise'. The only organisational difference between Climate 200 and Clive Palmer's United Australia Party is that everybody knows the identity of the billionaire behind candidates of the UAP.

Not so the so-called independents funded by Climate 200. The moral high-ground assumed by members of the Climate 200 political 'non-party' has a rather disingenuous element of non-disclosure that Palmer's United Australia Party, for all its faults, does not. While our political system allows for billionaires to attempt to influence politics, Palmer's party does so without apology, enabling voters to make informed choices when confronted with a barrage of well-funded campaign advertising. 

Independents funded by Climate 200, however, present as benignly concerned citizens while otherwise fulfilling the wishes of an undisclosed billionaire. 

The pretence of moral integrity adopted by so-called independents funded by Climate 200 needs to be called out so Australian voters can make informed choices.