Simon the Shoemaker and the Problem of Socrates

The name Simon the Shoemaker is not one immediately familiar to specialists in ancient philosophy. This may well be due, in part, to the tendency of many scholars both past and present to deny his historical reality altogether. Here, Sellars seeks to contribute to the project of uncovering the philosophy of the historical Socrates, or how that philosophy was understood by some of his immediate followers, in particular the Cynics. He considers Simon as a Cynic role model and suggests how this Cynic appropriation of Simon might contribute to the debate surrounding what has come to be known as "the problem of Socrates."