University of Chicago First Friday Lecture Series

Hosted by the Basic Program of Liberal Education for Adults. Lectures are offered at 12:15pm on the first Friday of every month except July, in the Claudia Cassidy Theater of the Chicago Cultural Center.

Socrates’s Religion

In Athens in 399 B.C.E. the philosopher Socrates was put on trial and condemned to death for, among other things, not believing in the gods of the state. But is he a complete atheist as his accuser Meletus believes? His defense against this charge is that he does believe in a “daimon” or inner voice that tells him when he is about to do something wrong. Moreover, when a friend consults the Delphic oracle about him, Socrates seems to find Apollo’s oracle credible. He then claims that he is following the oracle’s suggestion, “obedient to the god,” when he questions his fellow Athenians about what they know. Or is this more of Socrates’s famous irony? Is he really only a believer in reason and inquiry? This lecture will explore the evidence in the Plato’s Dialogues for Socrates’s religious beliefs.

Presented by:

Cynthia Rutz completed her PhD on Shakespeare at the University of Chicago in 2013. Other interests include mythology, folktales, and ancient Greek philosophy and literature. She is a former staff chair of the Basic Program and currently teaches at Valparaiso University.

Free, registration required. Click here for complete details.