The statements of the Memorabilia respecting the trial and death of Socrates agree generally with Plato; but they have lost the flavour of
Socratic irony in the narrative of Xenophon.
Many scholars find
Socratic irony so obvious in the Euthydemus that they do not bother to cite any textual support when they claim that Socrates does not sincerely mean something he says, for example, when he praises Euthydemus and his brother.
In the "
Socratic Irony" section, the first paragraph alone cites Socrates, Plato, Aristophanes, Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian.
A large part of this fascination is because of the enigma surrounding this literary-historical character (1), and which finds its embodiment in the Socratic Problem, the Socratic Method and
Socratic irony. The latter has experienced a revival in the work of Gregory Vlastos, whose book Socrates: Ironist and moral philosopher (1991) raised several questions on the nature and function of
Socratic irony.
The root meaning of the word, of course, is 'lover of wisdom,' and Poliziano is actually asking whether those who were teaching Aristotle in the Florentine university were really questioning, looking for new evidence, and asking themselves 'why?' By framing the argument within fables, he is challenging his readers to search for wisdom in untraditional ways, and by proceeding as he did, he placed himself within the tradition of
Socratic irony. In the end, Poliziano argues that the only way actually to attain wisdom is through philology, because only the philologist could examine all the evidence, be unimprisoned by disciplinary shackles, and pass dispassionate judgement on life's problems.
Central to this atopia is the enigma of '
Socratic irony' from the Greek word eironeia invoked by both Thrasymachus in Republic and Alcibiades in Symposium.
When Socrates says he knows nothing, this is one of the classic examples of
Socratic irony. In terms of operational knowledge, it may very well be true.
For example, in The Concept of Irony Kierkegaard challenges Hegel's account of Socrates, which sees
Socratic irony as a necessary moment in the historical advance toward absolute knowledge, but as a moment that needs to be sublated because Socrates ultimately fails to articulate the absolute.
In 2 Cor 10-13 Paul presents himself as a virtuous broker of Christ's authority--a clement authority--and uses
Socratic irony to show that in continuity with Christ's rule divine power operates through his modesty and weakness.