The New York herald., 1922-01-22
HUMBUG,
SAYSBERLIN WRITER
Declares Plato Knew 1t and
Wrote Dialogues to
Prove 1t.
CALLS RECORDS A JOKE
Entire Philosophy MonOtonous
and Childish Twaddle Of
Weak ChatterbOx.
CALLS RECORDS A JOKE

Specta, Gable to THE Npw YORK HERALD.
Copyright, 1922, bv THE NEW YoKK HERALD.
New York Herald Bureau.
Berlin. Jan. 2I.
Any one who has dipped into
Plato's dialogues and las tried to
fathom for himself what constituted
Socrates's greatness will take comfort
from a remarkable essay just pub
lished here by Alexander Moskowsld
in which he says in effect that Plato
himself knew that Socrates was a
humbug and that he wrote as lie did
to prove 1t to posterity.
Herr Moskowsld Is not a third rate
authority either. He is brilliant
enough to have written a popular
Interpretation for Germany of Elm
known as one of Einstein's closest
friends. Besides. he is prominent
writer on many articles and philo-
sophical subjects.
| His essay is entitled Socrates the
idiot" and evolves from this premise
that Plato felt a personal attachment
| fer his kind teacher, but was perfectly
aware Of his folly and meager spiritual
qualities.
Herr Moskowski says II Is time for
the world to recognize that Plato's rec
ords of Socrates's teachings are moth
| ing but a joke which has not been un-
derstood. BY writing his Dialogues"
and other works of which Socrates is
the hero Plato killed two birds with
one stone. On one hand he wanted the
name of Socrates to live as that OF a
man of excellent character and his SIN
cerely loved friend. On the ether hand.
he wanted to show in an unobtrusive
fashion that the entire so called phil
osophy OF Socrates was illogical. mo-
notonous and the childish twaddle of a
weak minded old chatterbox.
Herr Moskowski. who describes Soc
rates as a .spleeny soap box orator suf-
fering from monomania and surrounded
! by crowd always willing to be
amused calls the father of philosophy
sophist of the worst type and the real
originator OF the darkest and most mar
row minded type OF scholasticism. He
claims that the sophists lowered over
Socrates in intelligence.
The essay quotes many passages from
the Dialogues TO prove that nothing
would have been easier than to upset
Socrates's logic completely had his in
terrogators dared to ask one sensible
counter question such as would occur
| TO any one under the circumstances
But the persons who appeared to be the
| partners of Socrates have been con-
demned by Plato to stand as idiots who
submitted to the masters" most absurd
replies. and this despite the fact that
Pythagoras and others were highly edu-
Gated men and often deep thinkers and
great philosophers themselves.
But Herr Moskowski argues that
Plato could not oppose the poor quality
and fallacy of Socratess arguments
which were so obvious without doing his
contemporaries unintentional injustice
He concludes by admitting that his essay
will be branded as 'hercsy" and declares
that "piety should be satisfied with hav-
ing mourned Socrates's tragic death for
twenty-three centuries. The utterance
o. the Oracle Of Delphi which called Soc
rates the wisest OF all men should be
replaced by the new one Socrates Is
small as a thinker. greater as Plato's
friend. and undisputably greatest rs an
IDIOT"