As part of our annual Classics Dinner we were thrilled to welcome Dr Frisbee Sheffield, Cambridge University Associate Professor in Classics, to give a talk on the ethics of conversation.

Here’s what Year 10 Journalist Lead Kwanitah learned:

Our guest speaker, the brilliant Frisbee Sheffield spoke with the kind of insight and wit that made us all sit up a little straighter. She covered all sorts of fascinating things, including (ironically) why Socrates would have been deeply unimpressed with the very concept of a lecture. 

Which was unfortunate, given that we had just invited 30 people to sit down and listen to one.

Because, as Sheffield reminded us, Socrates was not a “sit quietly and take notes” kind of guy. No, Socrates was all about asking endless, exasperating questions until people either had a moment of deep philosophical insight or stormed off to get another drink. His whole deal was that real knowledge comes from arguing about things, not just passively absorbing information like a human sponge.

Which meant that, if he had been in the audience last night, he probably would have heckled us. Loudly. Possibly with rhetorical questions like, But what IS a dinner party? or Can wisdom truly be conveyed via canapé?

However! If Socrates had stuck around, he would have seen that, post-lecture, we did redeem ourselves. The discussion got lively. The questioning got intense, and there were dramatic hand gestures! At one point, I’m fairly sure someone next to me said, “But what if reality itself is an illusion?” which is always a good sign that a classics event is going well.

So yes, Socrates might have rolled his eyes at the lecture. But the chaos that followed? That, he would have loved.