[MD] irony and socrates

[John Carl]

I also, while wiki searching on Bloom, found reference to what sounds like
an amazing novel by Saul Bellow,
Ravelstein<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravelstein>
.


 Allan Bloom says a philosopher is immune to irony because he can see the
tragic <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragic> as
comic<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic> and
comic as tragic. Bloom refers to Socrates, the philosopher *par excellence,* in
his Interpretative Essay stating, "Socrates can go naked where others go
clothed; he is not afraid of ridicule. He can also contemplate sexual
intercourse where others are stricken with terror; he is not afraid of moral
indignation. In other words he treats the comic seriously and the tragic
lightly.[14] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Bloom#cite_note-13> Thus
irony in the *Republic* refers to the 'Just City in
Speech<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Just_City_in_Speech&action=edit&redlink=1>'
Bloom looks at it not as a model for future
society<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society>,
nor as a template for the human soul <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul>;
rather, it is an ironic city, an example of the distance between philosophy
and every potential philosopher. Bloom follows Strauss in suggesting that
the 'Just City in
Speech<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Just_City_in_Speech&action=edit&redlink=1>'
is not natural <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature>; it is man-made, and
thus ironic.