ABSTRACT
The critical principle applied by Socrates not only cut at the root of the conventional opinion in regard to labour which set up a cleavage within the same society. The question is, did Socrates see all to which the principle committed him, and did the vision liberate him from the ordinary ethic of his time, which drew a sharp line between friends and enemies, and sanctioned opposite modes of conduct toward them? Socrates had a very high ideal of family relationships, and brotherhood was a natural tie which he believed God intended should bind members of the family together closer than hands and feet. We are not convinced by Professor A. E. Taylor's "Varia Socratica" that Socrates was actually a member of a Pythagorean brotherhood. Xenophon himself has presented us with Socrates in another aspect, as taking a great view of humanity, very much akin to that he had of the family.
