I had not really understood how foundational texts like these are to the way we think. Like many people now, I have not been educated in the classic texts that have been read for thousands of years in the West. I know the names Plato and Socrates and Dante but have never interacted or heard of someone else reading or discussing their work (excepting maybe Plato’s cave or I know that I know nothing).

However, after reading The Trial and Death of Socrates for my Art of Living course, I’ve found myself experiencing a sort of Baader–Meinhof phenomenon on my own values. The people I respected the most for their behavior and conduct acted, to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin’s Thirteen Necessary Virtues, like Jesus and Socrates. All the good scientists I know have a Socratic quality to them. They are set on the truth in that painful way Socrates was. A lot of the values of the Christians I know are similar to Socrates in that Socrates is sort of a Christ-like figure (they have different aims but both are martyred, against the society they live in, and focus on morals over death or material wealth).

I have much more to read and even more to think about. There is a short reading list of books I would like to go through that I hope will have a similar effect on me.

1. The Iliad/Odyssey
2. The Republic
3. Divine Comedy

4. The Bible The Bible The Bible!!!!!

   (kind of ridiculous to have not read it)

Will report back.