Intelligence in the Socratic philosophers

Abstract

The practice of intelligence predates the institutionalization of intelligence by millennia. This is especially clear in the Fifth Century BCE Greek city states. It was during this period that the Socratic philosophers lived and wrote about political things. Since much of our modern terminology and understanding of politics began with these thinkers, a look at the way they integrated the activities of intelligence into their understanding of political matters would say something about the relationship between intelligence and politics. This, in turn, contributes to our current efforts to theorize intelligence.

Notes

1. In this, I do not touch on the impact that ethics and epistemology have on our subject as they are well covered in existent literature; nor do we need to consider the borrowing of theoretical models from various social sciences, that has been of great benefit to the field, especially to that of intelligence analysis.

2. I make a strong distinction here between approaching intelligence as a matter of political theory/thought and as a subject of historical description. Xenophon engages in both philosophy and historical description/instruction through his writings, and the difference in the two approaches disappears in fuller consideration of the work of Xenophon. Since modern secondary consideration of intelligence in the ancient world (and I am thinking here of the many fine works I cite below) only consider the historical/descriptive approach to finding intelligence in the Socratics, I begin with that approach, before turning to matters theoretical.

3. Special thanks to Peter Gill, Jeff Rogg and Hamilton Bean for their excellent suggestions on an earlier version of this paper.

4. Gill, Marrin and Phythian, Intelligence Theory.

5. I use sovereign here as Mike Warner does in his essay in Gill, Marrin, and Phythian, Intelligence Theory, 19, and my definition borrows heavily from him and Peter Gill’s fine summary of the debate at the end of that volume.

6. Richmond, “Spies in Ancient Greece,” 1.

7. Sheldon, Espionage in the Ancient World, 53.

8. Ibid., 54.

9. Gerolymatos, Espionage and Treason; Russell, Information Gathering; and Starr, Political Intelligence.

10. A search for ‘spy’ at the Perseus Digital Library at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/definitionlookup?q=spy turns up 21 terms that could be used related to the role of spy/scout.

11. Russell, Information Gathering, 12, 14.

12. Ibid., see esp. note 1, Chap. 3, 103.

13. Mitchell, Greeks Bearing Gifts, 28.

14. Richmond, “Spies in Ancient Greece,” 3; and Lewis, News and Society, 82–3.

15. Gerolymatos, Espionage and Treason, is a detailed discussion of the many roles of the proxenoi in ancient Greece.

16. Encyclopedia Britannica, “Sycophant,” 277.

17. Lofberg, “Sycophancy in Athens,” makes the most influential argument about this, though more modern examinations question his conclusion.

18. Lofberg, “Sycophancy in Athens,” 93.

19. Sheldon, Espionage in the Ancient World, 62, 65–6.

20. Osborne, “Vexatious Litigation,” 84.

21. For a recent discussion of these concerns, Dorion’s essay in Morrison’s Cambridge Companion to Socrates has an excellent discussion of the debates about Socrates’ life and thought.

22. Sheldon, “Tradecraft in Ancient Greece”.

23. Xenophon, On the Cavalry Commander, 4.7–8.

24. Ibid., 7.

25. Xenophon, Anabasis, book 3, chap. 3.

26. Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 2.6.6–7.

27. Lewis, News and Society, 82.

28. Xenophon, Hellenica, 6.1.4.

29. Xenophon, Anabasis, 2.5.38.

30. Xenophon, Hiero, 2.2.7–8.

31. Ibid., 10.

32. Xenophon, Memorabilia, 1.1.7.

33. Xenophon, Apology, 11.

34. Pangle, The Laws of Plato, 625.b.

35. Straus, The Argument and Action of Plato’s Laws, 1.

36. Pangle, The Laws of Plato, 511, n.2.

37. Ibid., 342, book XII, 941a.

38. Ibid., 352, book XII, 950a.

39. Ibid., 352, book XII, 950d.

40. Ibid., 353, book XII, 951c.

41. Ibid., 353, book XII, 951d.

42. Ibid., 354, book XII, 951e.

43. Gill, Marrin, and Phythian, Intelligence Theory, 209.

44. I include the last two, not to demean my fellow-practitioners of the arts of intelligence, but to suggest that intelligence shares some common actions (which may or may not have negative moral connotations) with show business (spies use sleight of hand and disguise at times) and espionage against another country is usually a violation of that country’s laws.

45. Gill, Intelligence Theory, 212.