The documentary was by Bethany Hughes for the BBC not a production for the "history" Channel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettany_Hughes
The basic idea is that writings by other people are not evidence for the person but evidence that someone was writing. So for example it was possible that Plato was writing about a "type" of person and Socrates was a gestalt entity made of the figure and similarly the figure parodied in a play which mentions Socrates could be parodying the figure invented by Plato.
Personally I think there was a Socrates and so did Mrs Hughes BUT the lack of direct evidence for him makes it possible he was a fiction, this is a valid argument that was addressed in the documentary which covered all of Socrates life, research into him and debates about meanings of his work.
I also think there was a David Koresch type charistmatic charlatan who the "jesus" character was based on. But this my own opinion and the historicity of jesus is far from proven.
By the way is aligning of writings proof for or against a historical jesus? you are arguing both ways at the same time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bettany_Hughes
Quote:Hughes has taught at Bristol, Manchester, Oxford and Cambridge universities. She is currently a Research Fellow of King's College London, a tutor for Cambridge University's Institute of Continuing Education,[5] an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University, and the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the University of York.[6]
The basic idea is that writings by other people are not evidence for the person but evidence that someone was writing. So for example it was possible that Plato was writing about a "type" of person and Socrates was a gestalt entity made of the figure and similarly the figure parodied in a play which mentions Socrates could be parodying the figure invented by Plato.
Personally I think there was a Socrates and so did Mrs Hughes BUT the lack of direct evidence for him makes it possible he was a fiction, this is a valid argument that was addressed in the documentary which covered all of Socrates life, research into him and debates about meanings of his work.
I also think there was a David Koresch type charistmatic charlatan who the "jesus" character was based on. But this my own opinion and the historicity of jesus is far from proven.
By the way is aligning of writings proof for or against a historical jesus? you are arguing both ways at the same time.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
