Does anybody know if the greeks ever fought against the Scythians? I’ve read my Herodotus and I know that the Persians used some greek forces as irregulars to attack the Scythians (well “attack”). Anyway, my general point is this -
the Socratic method is the rhetorical equivalent of indirect, retreating, encircling methods that nomad horse archers used to attack. The Western Way of fighting - a shocking face to face confrontation with the enemy (eg Greek Hoplite and Roman Legions) is similar to openly stating your case with points to back it up.
Philosophy is violence is war. Terrible thing isn’t it?
You cannot have a philosophical school without an armed force near at hand.
“The greeks” were no political union in those times. Of course there were some greek colonies in the north who fought against the Scythians, but the Athenians never did.
I don’t agree with you: Philosophy is no war, it’s a GAME. Before philosophy there were oracles and seers who spoke in riddles - these were the first “wise men”. But riddles were also popular games. Do you know the fisher-boys’s riddle? Fisher boys said to Homeros:
All that we caught, we left behind;
and all that we could not catch, we kept.
If you read Herakleitos you will see that he is a philosopher, but he speeks in riddles as well.
Some day the Greeks invented a new game. It was the game that was later called “dialectics”. They had a good time, drank some wine, and then they played the game: Somebody was confronted with a statement and got the task to prove it. His friends tried to disprove it. At first these statements were quite simple, like “Figs are healthy”. But later on, they became more difficult: “Water is the origin of all things”; “Virtue cannot be teached” … And so, philosophy was born.
(No, sorry, it’s not my idea: It’s from Giorgio Colli.)
