单选题：根据以下材料，回答题66.Socrates tells the story of Thales, who was by

根据以下材料，回答题
66.
Socrates tells the story of Thales, who was by some accounts the first philosopher. He was looking so intently at the stars that he fell into a well. Some witty Thracian servant girl is said to have made a joke at Thales' expense--that in his eagerness to know what went on in the sky he was unaware of the things in front of him and at his feet. Socrates adds, in Seth Benardete's transla- tion, "The same jest suffices for all those who engage in philosophy. "
What is a philosopher, then? The answer is clear: a laughing stock, an absent-minded buf- foon, the butt of countless jokes from Aristophanes' "The Clouds" to Mel Brooks' "History of the World",. Whenever the philosopher is compelled to talk about the things at his feet, he gives not only the Thracian girl but the rest of the crowd a belly laugh.
67.
But as always with Plato, things are not necessarily as they first appear, and Socrates is the greatest of ironists. First, we should recall that Thales believed that water was the universal sub- stance out of which all things were composed. Water was Thales' philosophers' stone, as it were. Therefore, by falling into a well, he inadvertently presses his basic philosophical claim.
But there is a deeper and more troubling layer of irony here that I would like to peel off more slowly. Socrates introduces the "digression" by making a distinction between the philosopher and the lawyer, or what Benardete nicely renders as the "pettifogger".
68.
By contrast, we might say, the philosopher is the person who has time or who takes time.
Theodorus, Socrates' interlocutor, introduces the "digression" with the words, "Aren't we at leis- ure, Socrates?" The latter's response is interesting. He says, "It appears we are. " As we know, in philosophy aooearances can be deceotive.
69.
Pushing this a little further, we might say that to philosophize is to take your time, even When you have no time, when time is constantly pressing at your back. The busy readers of The New York Times will understand this sentiment.
70.
Socrates says that those in the constant press of business, like lawyers, policy-makers, mort- gage brokers and hedge fund managers, become "bent and stunted" and they are compelled "to do crooked things". The pettifogger is undoubtedly successful, wealthy and extraordinarily honey- tongued, but, Socrates adds, "small in his soul and shrewd and a shyster. " The philosopher, by contrast, is free by virtue of his or her other-worldliness, by their capacity to fall into wells and ap- pear silly.
A.The philosopher's clumsiness in worldly affairs makes him appear stupid, or, "gives the im- pression of plain silliness. " We are left with a rather Monty Pythonesque definition of the philosopher: the one who is silly.
B.The lawyer is compelled to present a case in court and time is of the essence. In Greek legal proceedings, a strictly limited amount of time was allotted for the presentation of cases. Time was measured with a water clock or clepsydra, which literally steals time, as in the Greek kleptes, a thief or embezzler. The pettifogger, the jury, and by implication the whole socie- ty, live with the constant pressure of time. The water of time's flow is constantly threatening to drown them.
C.But the basic contrast here is that between the lawyer, who has no time, or for whom time is money, and the philosopher, who takes time. The freedom of the philosopher consists in ei- ther moving freely from topic to topic or simply spending years returning to the same topic out of perplexity, fascination and curiosity.
D.It is our hope that some of them will make the time to read The Stone. As Wittgenstein says,"This is how philosophers should salute each other: ' Take your time. ' "
E.Socrates believes that the philosopher neither sees nor hears the so-called unwritten laws of the city, that is, the mores and conventions that govern public life. The philosopher will dis- regard the societal rifles given to a person.
F.As Alfred North Whitehead said, philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato. Let me risk adding a footnote by looking at Plato's provocative definition of the philosopher that appears in the middle of his dialogue, "Theaetetus," in a passage that some scholars consider a "di- gression". But far from being a footnote to a digression, I think in this moment Plato tells us something hugely important about what a philosopher is and what philosophy does.