Conversation between Socrates and Fat Tony

Antifragile is a great idea and one without which life can/must/should not be imagined, and nnt has made the book so real and original that it almost feels like talking to a person. I have had my conflicts with the book at places. This is an alternate interpretation of a dialogue between Fat Tony and Socrates in Chapter 17.

Fat Tony: Get lost socrates, You are asking me to define what is the difference between pious and non pious, do I really need to be able to tell you what it is to be able to conduct a pious action?

Socrates: How can you form an argument in a court case without understanding the meaning of what that argument is?

Fat Tony: XXXXXXXX. I don’t know in words what it is but I know what it is.

Socrates: If you know what it is, then you tell me how can I look at an action and categories it to be pious and non pious. Don’t give me a definition, give me characteristics of how to decide something it pious.

Fat Tony: Tell me old man, does a child need to define mother’s milk to understand the need to drink it?

Socrates: No, he does not need to.

Fat Tony: Does a dog need to degine what an owner is to be loyal to him?

Socrates: A dog has instinct…It does not need to reflect on its life. He doesn;t examine his life. We are not dogs.

Fat Tony: I agree, my… Do we have to limit life to what… English?

Socrates: Yes, but does a child need to understand why is hurting others a wrong deed? He might not need to understand what is hurting by definition or what is a wrong deed by definition, but should he be taught to not do the act? If not, will the child stop someday from causing damage to others?

Fat Tony: Yeah Yeah, I gedit old man, you want to prove that one should have a platonic fold in vat is wrong vat is ridt. But is that always definable? Does a dog need to be taught that he should be loyal only to master?

Socrates: No, but a dog still has to be taught what is good what is bad by classifying peeing on master’s bed is bad. Idea is when someone is doing things to others one should be clear what is he doing. Doing things in random may cause iatrogenic harm.

Fat Tony: Still, one does not need definition.

Socrates: One does not need definition, one needs to be clear in reasoning and that should be constant. If something is pious due to god’s deeds than what about god killing those who should be punished?

Fat Tony: Go fudit with your logic. Why are you not arguing like how I wanted you to?

Socrates: Fat tony, you are trying to put people in the Procrustesian bed that you have made, while preaching others not to do the same. Stop generalizations and cherry-picking to put everything into your theory. Stop doing what you tell others are doing and it bad (it actually is bed and what differentiates you is your originality, just stop overdoing it because it is underdone everywhere else).

Socrates was happy to meet Fat Tony and discuss this, as the aim was not to prove him wrong, just stop any fatal damage by his action onto others.