Rating: 
Summary: Socrates the upsetter.
Review: This story from ancient Greece, a prime point in the history of philosophy, is told with a very thorough knowledge of journalistic points of view, expressing the kind of optimism about possible results that overlooks how readily legal proceedings can operate like secret military tribunals in coming up with the result desired most by whatever power can manipulate the proceedings most easily to favor itself. I.F. Stone tells this story so well, people who base their understanding of our political world on what they might learn from this book could expect to see more on such matters, especially if they are expecting the upcoming proceedings against the current enemies of democracy to fill their morning newspapers with the issues encountered in this book, if only there were newspapers which dared to raise any issues. Socrates is the issue-oriented person in THE TRIAL OF SOCRATES, and Stone is wise enough to notice that getting into an argument is not the same as winning the case in a proceeding of this nature.Philosophically, democracy has a tendency to adopt itself as an ideology, claimed by whatever faction is most adept at Schmittian politics, the nature of which is explained in great detail in THE CONCEPT OF THE POLITICAL by Carl Schmitt {the comments by Leo Strauss contained in the currently available translation into English includes the observation, "It is nonetheless true that the polemic against liberalism very often seems to be Schmitt's last word, that he very often gets entangled in the polemic against liberalism, and that he thus gets diverted from his real intention and is detained on the level staked out by liberalism. This entanglement is no accidental failure but the necessary result . . ." (Tracy B. Strong edition, p. 106)} and the very existence of Socrates as a person who is intentionally unprofessional, willingly associated with people who are as guilty as hell of malingering when called upon to perform the duties and civic obligations of people who think up charges to be brought as the best way of overcoming whoever might wonder who performed their work in a more religious manner, officials clouded in secrecy, or people who try to talk about what is going on. I'm sure I liked this book more than Socrates liked hemlock.
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