Celebrating the life of Socrates

Check out the snippet Friedrich Nietzsche's "The Gay Science". This is one of my favorite quotes in that it encompasses the true effect that Socrates had on his time, and still to this day. Any thoughts or interpretations?




"The dying Socrates.— I admire the courage and wisdom of Socrates in
everything he did, said—and did not say. This mocking and enamored monster and pied piper of Athens, who made the most overweening youths tremble and sob, was not only the wisest chatterer of all time: he was equally great in silence. I wish he had remained taciturn also at the last moment of his life,—in that case he might belong to a still higher order of spirits. Whether it was death or the poison or piety or malice—something loosened his tongue at that moment and he said: "Oh Crito, I owe Asclepius a rooster." [Asklepios: Greek god of medicine.] This ridiculous and terrible "last word" means for those who have ears: "Oh Crito, life is a disease." Is it possible! A man like him, who had lived cheerfully and like a soldier in the sight of everyone,—should have been a pessimist! He had merely kept a cheerful mien while concealing all his life long his ultimate judgment, his inmost feeling! Socrates, Socrates suffered life!

Kenny; he was pushing a baseless metaphysics that has done inestimable injury to philosophy.... What do the dead know, and what do we know about death... It is about belief, and not about knowledge... He certainly had no view of the good since he so admired Sparta... What is Good??? First define the thing and then say what fits the description... As a moral form, and an infinite, it cannot be defined; except common to all life, judging by the behavior of all, Life is good... Death is not... And yes; he helped to poison nearly a thousand years of Christianity... Good for him... Bad for humanity...

Fido wrote:

Kenny; he was pushing a baseless metaphysics that has done inestimable injury to philosophy.... What do the dead know, and what do we know about death... It is about belief, and not about knowledge... He certainly had no view of the good since he so admired Sparta... What is Good??? First define the thing and then say what fits the description... As a moral form, and an infinite, it cannot be defined; except common to all life, judging by the behavior of all, Life is good... Death is not... And yes; he helped to poison nearly a thousand years of Christianity... Good for him... Bad for humanity...

What has that to do with what I wrote? I did not endorse what he said. I simply explained it.