If philosophy and rhetoric are kind of the Big Bads in The Clouds, morality is the white knight. Characters like Socrates and Worse Argument (and Strepsiades, for most of the play) seem to think that worrying about some external moral code is sooooo 500 BCE; the modern way is just to pay attention to science and what can be empirically proven.
Socrates is all about using rhetoric to push your own agenda, regardless of how moral it is by an external standard; if you can back it up with proofs, it's all good. Of course, the play strongly suggests that this view of morality only leads to bad things. For example, Pheidippides ends up using Socrates's teachings to prove that he's justified in beating his father, which sends Strepsiades running back into the anti-Socrates camp.
Questions About Morality
- In terms of characters, who is the play's moral center? That is, which character would you consider the most moral?
- Are rhetoric and morality completely incompatible? How about science and morality?
- Has Strepsiades really learned any kind of moral lesson at the end of the play, or is he still doing just what's expedient for him?
Chew on This
The Clouds are definitely the play's moral center, as they present the most coherent voice about what constitutes right and wrong.
Strepsiades has not learned anything by the end of the play; he only rejects Socrates because he is mad his son is using Socrates's ideas to justify beating him. Ironically, in his single-minded pursuit of self-interest, he seems like the ultimate subscriber to Worse Argument.