29-05-2025
This philosopher believed that beauty could save democracy
In the poem 'Socrates and Alcibiades,' the German Romantic writer Friedrich Hölderlin asks why the famed Athenian philosopher fell in love not with a fellow genius, but with a handsome youth. Although he was renowned for his looks, Alcibiades was notoriously rash and silly. Shouldn't Socrates, of all people, rise above such temptations? Shouldn't he prefer sagacity to charm? On the contrary, Hölderlin concludes, 'the wise, in the end, often bow to what is beautiful.' There is a broader lesson in this poetic parable: Beauty, the verse suggests, can be more powerful than argument.
