11.4 The Burden of Celebrity

Meanwhile Socrates went about his daily walks, holding impromptu conversations with his many friends and with new acquaintances as well. He felt a special connection to the divine through his daimonion, a divine sign that advised him from time to time. It did not, he assured his friends, ever tell him what to do or answer his philosophical questions. It did not speak in hexameter verses or plan his conversations for him. Rather, it came to him only to warn him against doing or saying anything that was not right. It was a kind of conscience telling him what not to do. Socrates regarded it as having divine sanction, and as authoritative in its sphere. It did not, however, tell him what to think or how to act, but came only to warn him against certain courses of action. Plutarch speculates that Socrates’ sign was a “perception of a voice or else the mental apprehension of language.” <a href="https://medium.com/the-first-philosophers/11-4-the-burden-of-celebrity-241f61295302">Learn More</a>