Sócrates em 90 minutos mostra que o criador da dialética passou tanto tempo falando de filosofia nas ruas de Atenas que jamais chegou a escrever coisa alguma: "Não sabendo nada, o que poderia eu escrever?", ruminava o filósofo. A linguagem irreverente aliada à originalidade da abordagem transforma a série Filósofos em 90 minutos em excelente ponto de partida para se iniciar na vida e na obra dos grandes pensadores. Em formato de bolso e com preço acessível, os volumes incluem um quadro cronológico com as datas mais importantes da filosofia, uma seleção de citações do filósofo em questão, além de uma introdução e um posfácio que o situam na tradição filosófica. "A coleção cumpre a promessa que faz: seduzir o jovem que é o seu público-alvo. Tem tudo para agradá-lo e pode conduzi-lo a outros e novos encontros, o que é formidável para os novatos e para a filosofia." Ieda Tucherman, Veredas

Listened to this book on Audible Channels at work. The book is more of a history of how and why Greece was in the position to separate philosophy and science from religion. Nothing new on Socrates and that is not too surprising. Socrates never wrote anything down and we have to rely on differing accounts of Plato and Xenophon to put together an accurate life story. A good introduction, but no where as good as Confucius in 90 Minutes.


And thanks to Bill and Ted, my mind automatically thinks "So-Crates" when I see his name. ( )

A good quick summation of Socrates and his philosophy (at least what we know of it). Paul does a good job detailing his life and his outlook on life and philosophy, as well as the backdrop to his times. There's a fair bit of sardonic wit as well that makes it an entertaining brief read. ( )

As advertised I guess, but for such a ridiculously abbreviated book it seems strange that Strathern makes time to take so many cheap shots at Socrates. Consider the following:
"The unscientific attitude that developed with Socrates was to cast a blight on philosophy for centuries to come" and "must count as one of the great misfortunes of human learning"

I have very rarely heard Socrates referred to as a "blight" and a "misfortune" cast upon human learning. And maybe in a 1,000 page examination of his life and times we might want to touch upon some of these ideas but in a 80 page pamphlet?

And Strathern continues this line of thinking throughout his mini-book, constantly referring to ideas Socrates probably didn't come up with or the errors of his ways, also making sure to take time to refer to him as "the ugliest man in Athens" and a man who heard "voices" leading us "to have suspicions about his sanity"

Strathern also seems to have a particular dislike of philosophers as a whole, categorizing Socrates famous quote of "the unexamined life is not worth living" as an example of "the attitude of an intellectual with time on their hands."

I could go on, but the point is that Strathern seems to be a strange person to write a childishly brief account of Socrates considering he seems to have a very dissenting opinion of the man. That is to say, if he wanted to re-write the history of philosophy, he may have tried to do so with an anthology instead of a anecdote. ( )

Good overview of what we know about Socrates, his life, his philosophies, and his impact. ( )