The next several weeks will go much easier if you simply spend the time to blow through the Clouds. You can access the text here or buy it using our affiliate link here. You won’t regret it.
There are very few plays about philosophers—in fact Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens is one of the few others that comes to mind. But most that do exist are tragedies, not comedies like the one we have before us. Recall Socrates was charged with not believing in the gods of the city, with corrupting the youth, and with making the weaker argument the stronger. In a sense all of these can be summed up in the following charge: Socrates undermined the conventional standards of Athens. Here it’s worth noting that political philosophy necessarily questions the political opinions of the political community—that’s its whole purpose, to question opinions to discover the truth. As such, this play is a key to coming to understand Socrates and what happened to him.
Now why is this a comedy and not a tragedy? Which is better suited to philosophy? Tragedy requires you to be under the conventional view of what is noble, whereas comedy puts one above these things and allows one to look down upon them. Tragedy therefore is much better suited to religion and comedy may share a special relationship with philosophy.