One idea that I just had later to motivate students with something more interesting would be to ask them to imagine a dialogue between Socrates and some famous personality. Would talk about what? Football? Universe? Origin of Life? Love? I wrote some years ago a book was not published, " hypothetical Dialogues" (not published) in which I imagined Socrates in a dialogue with some historical persons, one of them was Hitler. It was more or less like this:    Crito: - Socrates, we have a visit, he is a foreigner and he wants to meet you. Socrates - Who is he? And where ais he from? Crito - is a governor of a distant land called Germany. He recently caused chaos in Europe. Socrates – Please, does not he wait, bring him to here. (the foreigner enter into the house of Socrates) Socrates - "Tell me, oh, stranger, that kind of agreement you have with one of the oldest gods, the chaos, to worship him more than the other gods? Hitler - you know better than me, noble Socrates, that all comes from chaos, including the great empires. Socrates - I see in you an ambition of the size of the pantheon, the foreigner. Why this thirst for power which exceeds the forces of an individual? Hitler - exceeds, because it spreads throughout the nation. Socrates - but still, every man and woman can only bear the weight of his body and perhaps, at most, a little more, but this it will cause in a long-term damage to health. Hitler - Discussions about a subject that you only know in theory. Socrates - Yes, but I've been on the side of those who called themselves immortal until I witnessed the death of them. But tell me that your theory, because you also is theoretical resembles that one of Darwin, who thought that the strongest being have the natural right on the weaker ones (in fact this is a misinterpretation of the ideas of Darwin, who said the environment select the most adapted to live in the environment). Hitler - Exactly, I lead a strong people who do not accept the existence of

weak. Socrates – So, tell me, you run the world to exterminate fleas or worms that parasitize our intestines? Hitler - How? Why would I do that? Socrates – It is because that the daimon (god within, some say it is Eros, the god of love) that dwells in me told me that what you propose is useless and impossible, that is, to lose your life in such hunts. If they are inferior to you, why do you give so much importance to these tiny forms of life. If they are inferior toyou, just that you put them out of your clothes or out of your body when they invade you. Hitler – I’m not talking about these beings. Socrates –do you persecute men and women? Hitler - the lowest type. Socrates - you are walking in circles, oh foreigner , because if they are inferior, you should not worry about them, a good vermifuge would do the trick or else you do like me, when fleas invade my clothes, I call Xanthippe to help me return them to the ground. Your problem, foreign, is that persecute men and women not because they are inferior to you, but because they are different of you! Tell me, you who is also an artist, according i was informed: do you want to extinquish the red or the blue color? Hitler-How? Socrates-It is because everything is different causes in you indignation and outrage, and red is different from the blue, which one you will protect and which one youwill persecute? Hitler - Socrates, I see that you understood nothing of what you said (the stranger rushed out).

Written by philosopher Antonio Jacques de Matos Porto Alegre city, 12/05/2009Rio Grande do sul State, Brazil.