There are any number of people who are annoying. But in all of history, we learn that the all-time champion of being annoying was none other than the greatest philosophical mind ever known. That’s right… Socrates is hands down the winner of being the most annoying person to ever live.
Why?
In Socratic Debate, he would begin his discourses with what has become known as the “What Is Question.” For example, “What is beauty?” Or “what is Justice?” After one of his listeners would give an answer, Socrates would issue his elenchus, or “refutation.” In this refutation, he would detail his explanation of why the answer just given was completely and totally wrong.
That would get old after a bit. And it no doubt contributed more than a small measure to the cup that would finally kill him.
Still, it is Socrates who provides the greatest influence on Plato, who in turn provides influence to the great republican philosophers of the Enlightenment by defining what exactly a republic is. Or at least what it should be. Or at least, what it could be.
At least until the arrival of Montesquieu who then rearranged the whole thing. Then in turn, he was upended by the convention of 1787, leaving it so that – despite Ben Franklin – nobody knew anymore what a republic actual was.
One thing was certain according to Brutus and his elenchus: what was in the proposed Constitution is most definitely NOT a republic.
Constitution Thursday 