The Best Things in Life

A Contemporary Socrates Looks at Power, Pleasure, Truth the Good Life

Peter Kreeft

• Publisher: IVP
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780877849223
• eBook ISBN: 9780830874521
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

What are the best things in life?Questions like that may boggle your mind. But they don't boggle Socrates. The indomitable old Greek brings his unending questions to Desperate State University. With him come the same mind-opening and spirit-stretching challenge that disrupted ancient Athens.

• What is the purpose of education?
• Why do we make love?
• What good is money?
• Can computers think like people?
• Is there a difference between Capitalism and Communism?
• What is the greatest good?
• Is belief in God like belief in Santa Claus?

In twelve short, Socratic dialogues Peter Kreeft explodes contemporary values like success, power and pleasure. And he bursts the modern bubbles of agnosticism and subjectivism. He leaves you richer, wiser and more able to discern what the best things in life actually are.

II.

Socrates and
Felicia Flake

7 On Pot and Happiness

Felicia Flake: Hi, man. Lookin’ for a joint?

Socrates: I am neither a butcher nor a surgeon. Why should I be looking for a joint?

Felicia: I mean a roach. You lookin’ for a roach?

Socrates: I am not an exterminator either. Do you have a cockroach problem here at Desperate State?

Felicia: Oh, a funnyman! Are you kidding or are you innocent?

Socrates: Neither, I think.

Felicia: You think? You don’t know?

Socrates: You have finally identified my profession. But one thing I do know: I don’t know what you are talking about.

Felicia: I’m talking pot, man.

Socrates: What is “potman”?

Felicia: Do you want to smoke some pot with me or not?

Socrates: How do you smoke a pot?

Felicia: Not a pot, silly; pot.

Socrates: You mean you think you can smoke a universal rather than a particular.

Felicia: Huh?

Socrates: I mean. . .

Felicia: Never mind. Hey, if you’re kidding, you’re getting pretty tedious, and if you’re not, you must be from another world.

Socrates: In a sense. . .

Felicia: You really don’t know what pot is?

Socrates: No. Will you tell me?

Felicia: Better. I’ll give you. Try it; you’ll like it.

Socrates: May I know what it is first?

Felicia: You mean you won’t try it unless you analyze it first? What kind of a coward are you?

Socrates: Is it cowardly to want to know? Are wisdom and courage exclusive?

Felicia: Oh, now I know what you’re doing. You’re impersonating a philosopher. Say, you look just like Socrates. I know all about that cat; studied him last year. Are you going to a costume party or something?

Socrates: Something like that. This intellectual smorgasbord called Desperate State University rather resembles a costume party, I think, with all its role-playing guests. But I am not impersonating Socrates; I’m the original.

Felicia: Sure you are. You’re pretty original at that. O.K., I’ll go along with the gag.

Socrates: Gag? I don’t want to gag you, but release you from your cave.

Felicia: And what do you do, O philosopher?

Socrates: I philosophize, of course.

Felicia: O, right. Dumb question. Score one for the little Greek. What next?

Socrates: You were talking about something called “pot.” Will you tell me what it is?

Felicia: Sure. It makes you high.

Socrates: Is it a ladder?

Felicia: No, it’s a drug.

Socrates: A drug to make me taller? Five feet high is quite enough for me.

Felicia: No, silly, to make you happy.

Socrates: How remarkable! A drug for unhappiness! And do you use this drug a lot?

Felicia: Yes.

Socrates: Then you must be very unhappy, otherwise there would be no need to use it. But if you are unhappy, the drug is not working, so why do you continue to use it?

Felicia: Oh. I don’t know. I never thought of it that way.

Socrates: What a fast learner you are!

Felicia: What did I learn?

Socrates: That you do not know. That is Lesson One.

Felicia: Well, tell me Lesson Two then. Tell me why I shouldn’t.

Socrates: I do not teach by telling. I teach by asking.

Felicia: Oh, right. The good old “Socratic dialog.” You play your part well. O.K., I guess if you won’t get stoned with me, I’ll have to play it straight with you.

Socrates: Do they stone you for using this drug?

Felicia: It’s just an expression.

Socrates: You mean they stone you for an expression?

Felicia: I think we have some communication problems here.

Socrates: I should think so, if they stone you for using certain expressions.

Felicia: I just meant that “stoned” and “straight” were mere words.

Socrates: “Mere words”? There is nothing mere about a word, my dear.

Felicia: Felicia’s the name. Felicia Flake.

Socrates: How felicitous. Do you mean to say that your words do not mean what they say?

Felicia: Forget it. Let’s not talk about words. Let’s talk about pot.

Socrates: But how can we talk except in words?

Felicia: Let’s just talk pot.

Socrates: I have never seen pots coming from a speaker’s mouth, only words.

Felicia: O.K., cut the comedy and quiz me. I’ll play my part. What do you want to know?

Socrates: Everything. But one thing at a time. You say “pot” is a drug?

Felicia: Yes.

Socrates: Do not all drugs alter the chemistry of the body in some way?

Felicia: Yes.

Socrates: And is there a state of body chemistry that can be called the natural or healthy state?

Felicia: No, not necessarily. Who’s to say what’s natural?

Socrates: Doctors. When they prescribe drugs, do they not have this state of health in mind, and do they ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Foreword by Anytus of Athens
• I. Socrates and Peter Pragma
• II. Socrates and Felicia Flake
• Postscript
• Praise for The Best Things in Life
• About the Author
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• Copyright