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This book is an original interpretation of Plato’s enigmatic statements about the idea of the Good. Desjardins starts by reconciling two notoriously difficult and different accounts of the dialectical method found in the Philebus and The Republic. She then shows how they are connected to the four forms of god-given mania in the Phaedrus. Desjardins links god-given mania and the dialectical method to the concept of piety in the Euthyphro and to Plato’s defense of Socrates’ piety in the Apology. Desjardins’ interpretation of the idea of the Good that is presented by Plato in words (logoi) and through dramatic action (erga) is compelling and will inspire everyone interested in Plato’s dialogues and the idea of the Good.
Desjardins conclusion, that the Theaetetus really does point to a particular theory of knowledge, certainly will be controversial, since for many people the idea that the Theaetetus fails to define knowledge is the cornerstone of their interpretation of Platos later philosophical thought. But whatever one thinks about the conclusion, it must be agreed that the manner in which it is defended is intrinsically important. Desjardins starts from the unassailable premise that the dialogues are internally unified, and that everything in the dialogues is there for a reason. Her method, then, is to show how some of the features of the dialogue that are usually not taken very seriously actually are very important. Of course, she is not the only scholar taking this sort of tack, but what she makes of the various elements of the Theaetetus is a most impressive construction.
The material elements of writing have long been undervalued, and have been dismissed by recent historicising trends of criticism; but analysis of these elements - sound, signature, letters - can transform our understanding of literary texts. In this 1994 book Tom Cohen shows how, in an era of representational criticism and cultural studies, the role of close reading has been overlooked. Arguing that much recent criticism has been caught in potentially regressive models of representation, Professor Cohen undertakes to counter this by rethinking the 'materiality' of the text itself. Through a series of revealing new readings of the work of writers including Plato, Bakhtin, Poe, Whitman and Conrad, Professor Cohen exposes the limitations of new historicism and neo-pragmatism, and demonstrates how 'the materiality of language' operates to undo the representational models of meaning imposed by the literary canon.
These essays by philosophers, philologists and historians exemplify both the pluralism and shared values of recent scholarship on Plato's dialogues and philosophy. They emphasise the interdependence of ideas, literary and dramatic elements, and the historical and cultural contexts.
This book proposes to rethink the relationship between philosophy and literature through an engagement with Plato’s dialogues. The dialogues have been seen as the source of a long tradition that subordinates poetry to philosophy, but they may also be approached as a medium for understanding how to overcome this opposition. Paradoxically, Plato then becomes an ally in the attempt “to overturn Platonism,” which Gilles Deleuze famously defined as the task of modern philosophy. Max Statkiewicz identifies a “rhapsodic mode” initiated by Plato in the dialogues and pursued by many of his modern European commentators, including Nietzsche, Heidegger, Irigaray, Derrida, and Nancy. The book a...
A lively and highly readable commentary on one of Plato’s most beloved dialogues.
In Thinking Being, Eric Perl articulates central ideas and arguments regarding the nature of reality in Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, and Aquinas. He shows that, throughout this tradition, these ideas proceed from and return to the indissoluble togetherness of thought and being, first clearly expressed by Parmenides. The emphasis throughout is on continuity rather than opposition: Aristotle appears as a follower of Plato in identifying being as intelligible form, and Aquinas as a follower of Plotinus in locating the first principle “beyond being”. Hence Neoplatonism, itself a coherent development of Platonic thought, comes to be seen as the mainstream of classical philosophy. Perl’s book thus contributes to a revisionist understanding of the fundamental outlines of the western tradition in metaphysics.
Bitter Knowledge examines the Socratic method in three fundamental Platonic dialogues, Protagoras, Meno, and Theaetetus, contending that the method is really a cyclical one of disillusionment and renewal.
In this book, W. Thomas Schmid demonstrates that the Charmides -- a platonic dialogue seldom referenced in contemporary studies -- is a microcosm of Socratic philosophy. He explores the treatment of the Socratic dialectic, the relation between it and the Socratic notion of self-knowledge, the Socratic ideal of rationality and self-restraint, the norm of holistic and moral health, the interpretation of the soul as the rational self, the Socratic attitude toward democracy, and the connections between dialectic autonomy and moral community. Schmid argues that the depiction and account of sophrosune -- human moderation -- in the Charmides adumbrates Plato's vision of the life of critical reason, and of its uneasy relation to political life in the ancient city.