The Apologies, The Clouds and the Trial of Socrates: Identity and Change in Viable Systems

Abstract

This text examines the trial of Socrates based upon three primary sources (the Apologies of Plato and Xenophon, and Aristophane’s Clouds) and from the perspective of Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model, which proposes a set of subsystems that are necessary for any viable system. The idea is to determine if Socrates is a foreign body, hostile to Athens, or rather, a necessary subsystem. What is at stake is the need Xenophon’s Socrates of philosophical thought for the viability of society, and the specificity of philosophy: whereas Xenophon’s Socrates is more a master of morality that operates by strengthening Athen’s social cohesion (which the Viable System Model would call “system 3”, the autopoietic reproduction of the system), Plato’s Socrates questions the gnoseological bases of the principles upon which his interlocutors act, calling into question their identity and axiological orientation. This activity, from the point of view of the Viable System Model, is part of the necessary work a system must undertake, of creatively re-thinking its own identity as it undergoes change. Whereas Xenophon defends Socrates by claiming that he is a part of system 3 (which anyone would agree is a necessary part of society), Plato’s task is to defend system 5 as such, that is, the role of philosophy in society.