Book Review-The Socrates Express By Eric Weiner

 

I read another Eric Weiner book: The Geography of Genius , which I happened to read because the late Bill Walton put on his top reads, I know, a weird way to get book recommendations. https://polymathtobe.blogspot.com/2025/01/book-review-geography-of-genius-by-eric.html

I so enjoyed Eric Weiner’s writing and his take on our society that I went and bought more of his books. This one jumped out at me, so I started reading it. I was pleasantly pleased with my choice because of the framework that Weiner chose as the background for this book.

The Socrates Express matches fourteen philosophers with outstanding ideas from their philosophical writings in fourteen chapters. The philosophers run the gamut from the usual suspects like Socrates, Epicurus, and Epictetus to the obscure like Sei Shonagun. The middle is filled out with philosophers from the history of mostly western philosophy although he does include some eastern philosophers like Confucius and Ghandi. The framework that he uses is the train trip. Each chapter starts with Weiner taking a journey on a train to a site that is meaningful for the philosopher, he expands on the subject that is associated with the philosopher while using the journey and the locale as buttress for his arguments. It is an enjoyable way to live and relive the philosopher’s ideas while having the sights, sounds, smells, and other senses associated with train journeys surrounding our imagination.

Since Weiner has been a long-time travel journalist, he readily deployed this point of view in his other books, but the main motif for this book is very apropos, at least for me. The chapters are further divided into three parts, corresponding to the times of the day: dawn, noon, and dusk.  Each chapter starts with background information about the lives of the highlighted philosopher to give the reader background on the reasons each philosopher developed their philosophies in the manner that they did. Each chapter evolved as Weiner had conversations with people in each of the locales regarding the subject philosopher. This template for the chapters was cozy and comfortable, as I became accustomed to the method, it became very conducive to my explorations of Weiner’s expositions on the fourteen topics. The book gently presented the philosophers and topics, the familiar way that each chapter was structured allowed me to be comfortable and welcomed with the structure, which enticed me into happily devouring the biography and the central ideas presented in each chapter.

Despite the friendly structure however, Weiner did not skimp on the philosophical analysis. Indeed, the most impressive part of Weiner’s writer’s craft is how adept he is in creating a reader friendly atmosphere so that the intellectual exercise necessary for gaining philosophical understanding becomes quite optimal for the readers.

Weiner’s choice of philosophers and topics covers a wide range of personalities and subjects. He was not completely Eurocentric in his choices of philosopher, three out of the fourteen are Asian philosophers. The topics were focused on everyday human concerns rather than heavy subjects, which is befitting his train travel motif. The reading experience for this reader was both enjoyable and enlightening, it is the best kind of philosophical experience possible.

Since I have read two of Eric Weiner’s books, and have enjoyed his output, another book from this great explainer is in the offing soon.