Questions for famous people and historical figures

Why does the soul have three parts and not two?

His evidence is inner conflict. A thirsty person who refuses a drink shows reason against appetite, and a man furious with his own eyes for wanting to stare at corpses shows a third part, spirit, taking reason's side. The Phaedrus turns it into a charioteer with two horses. Ask which horse won the last time someone broke a promise to themselves.

From: Questions to Ask Plato

What do you make of your name becoming a title, a month and a way of being born?

Kaiser and tsar both come from Caesar, and the month of July was renamed for him in 44 BC. The birth story is the myth to correct: his mother Aurelia lived for decades after he was born, which is why historians doubt he arrived by surgery, and where the word comes from is disputed. For the dinner game, add that the salad is named after a restaurateur of the 1920s.

From: Questions to Ask Julius Caesar

You said that at fifteen you set your heart on learning. What happened at fifteen?

The line opens a short autobiography in Book 2 that moves by decades: standing firm at thirty, free of doubt at forty, knowing what Heaven had decreed at fifty, and at seventy following his heart without crossing the line. He never says what set him off at fifteen, so that part of the reply has to be invented and should be offered as a guess.

From: Questions to Ask Confucius

What is the difference between a friend you enjoy and a friend you would die for?

He sorts friendship into three kinds, based on utility, on pleasure, and on character, and only the third is stable, because the first two dissolve when the use or the pleasure does. Most people recognize their own friendships in the ranking and dislike where some of them land.

From: Questions to Ask Aristotle

You met Goethe at Teplitz in the summer of 1812. What did you make of each other?

Each wrote about the other afterward. Goethe admired the talent and called the personality utterly untamed, and Beethoven grumbled that the poet liked the air of courts too much. The tale of him marching through the imperial party while Goethe bowed comes from Bettina von Arnim and is widely doubted.

From: Questions to Ask Beethoven

Did you ever intend to free the people you enslaved, and what stopped you?

He freed very few, most of them members of the Hemings family, while debt and Virginia law were both available as explanations. The question tests whether he treats those as constraints or as excuses.

From: Questions to Ask Thomas Jefferson