Everything about Memorabilia Xenophon totally explained
The
Memorabilia are also known by the alternate Latin title
Commentarii, the Greek title
Apomnemoneumata (Απομνημονεύματα, Ἀπομνημονεύματα), and a variety of English translations (Recollections, Memoirs, etc.). The lengthiest and most famous of
Xenophon's Socratic writings, the
Memorabilia is a more conventional apologia (defense) of
Socrates than either Xenophon's
Apology or
Plato's
Apology, as both of those works illustrate Socrates' defiance at his trial, rather than making the case for his defense. The
Memorabilia was probably completed only after 371, as one passage (3.5) appears to assume the military situation after the Spartan defeat at the battle of Leuctra in that year.
The
Memorabilia falls into two parts. The first presents a direct defense against the charges against Socrates (Book 1, chapters 1 and 2). In this section of the
Memorabilia, Xenophon not only discusses matters immediately relevant to the formal charges against Socrates, which were broadly religious in nature, but also addresses the political charges against Socrates. These include the charge that Socrates corrupted the future Athenian statesmen and scoundrels Alcibiades and Critias and the charge that he led the youth to despise democracy. These charges are not directly addressed in the
Apology of Plato (or Xenophon's own
Apology). It has often been argued that Xenophon is here responding not to charges in the air at time of the trial of Socrates in 399, but to charges made some years later by the Athenian sophist Polycrates in his
Accusation of Socrates. But Polycrates' work is lost, and our sources for reconstructing it are late and unreliable. The assumption that Xenophon was responding to Polycrates point by point may be driven as much by the traditional low esteem for Xenophon's literary powers as to any historical influence from Polycrates. The role of Polycrates is one item in the debate over whether Xenophon's treatment of Socrates reflects the historical Socrates, or is a largely ficitional contribution to the literary debate about Socrates.
The rest of the work (chapters 3-8 of book 1, and all of books 2-4) consists of short episodes of Socrates conversing with friends, rival teachers, and notable Greeks, with a few narrative remarks on Socrates' teachings. This section of the
Memorabilia is meant to showcase Socrates' usefullness to a wide range of interlocutors. Readers of Plato often find this part of the work commonplace, lacking in philosophical substance or literary charm. But Xenophon's goal wasn't to present Socrates as an original philosopher (or to attribute to him his own original philosophy, as Plato was eventually to do), but to show that Socrates was a successful, upright, and wise teacher.
Among the most philosophically important sections of the work are two chapters (1.4 and 4.3) which outline the first known example of the argument from design (a.k.a. the
Teleological argument). A related chapter gives a rudimentary account of
Natural law (4.4), though as it also contains considerable praise of positive law, its interpretation is contested. As neither intelligent design nor natural law is normally associated with the Socrates presented in Plato's early dialogues, there's considerable debate about whether or not the historical Socrates held these views. It is clear, however, that the
Stoics made considerable use of Xenophon's version of the argument from design, and their account of natural law also owed something to Socrates, if not necessarily to Xenophon's Socrates.
Translations
- Xenophon, Memorabilia, trans. Amy L. Bonnette, introd. by Christopher Bruell, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, The Agora Editions, 1994.
- Xenophon, Conversations of Socrates, translated by Hugh Tredennick and Robin Waterfield, edited with new material by Robin Waterfield. Penguin, 1990. [Containsall the Socratic works. Less painstakingly literal than the Bonette/Bruell combo; includes full introductions sympathetic to Xenophon.]
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