Philosophy as Drama: Plato’s Thinking through Dialogue

Description

Plato's philosophical dialogues can be seen as his creation of a new genre. Plato borrows from, as well as rejects, earlier and contemporary authors, and he is constantly in conversation with established genres, such as tragedy, comedy, lyric poetry, and rhetoric in a variety of ways. This intertextuality reinforces the relevance of material from other types of literary works, as well as a general knowledge of classical culture in Plato's time, and the political and moral environment that Plato addressed, when reading his dramatic dialogues. The authors of Philosophy as Drama show that any interpretation of these works must include the literary and narrative dimensions of each text, as much as serious the attention given to the progression of the argument in each piece. Each dialogue is read on its own merit, and critical comparisons of several dialogues explore the differences and likenesses between them on a dramatic as well as on a logical level. This collection of essays moves debates in Plato scholarship forward when it comes to understanding both particular aspects of Plato's dialogues and the approach itself. Containing 11 chapters of close readings of individual dialogues, with 2 chapters discussing specific themes running through them, such as music and sensuousness, pleasure, perception, and images, this book displays the range and diversity within Plato's corpus. Review “Philosophy as Drama illuminates the relationship between the genre of Platonic dialogue and philosophical practice. This collection is a fine work of creative scholarship that not only gives us fresh insight into Plato's literary form, but also deepens our understanding of how virtue and political community are intertwined with dialogue.” ― Marina McCoy, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Boston College, USA About the Author Hallvard Fossheim is Professor in Ancient Philosophy, University of Bergen, Norway. He has published articles on Plato and Aristotle, as well as works on research ethics and virtue ethics. Vigdis Songe-Møller is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, University of Bergen, Norway. Her focus of research has been feminist interpretations of ancient Greek texts, especially by Hesiod, Anaximander, Parmenides, and Plato. She coordinated the international research project Poetry and Philosophy: Poetical and Argumentative Elements of Plato's Philosophy. Knut Ågotnes is Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bergen, Norway. Cover page Halftitle page Series page Title page Copyright page Contents List of Contributors A note on transcribed Greek versus Greek fonts Preface Introduction Genre and the philosophical dialogue Virtue and soul-shaping Reason and irrationality Place and displacement Note Part One Genre and the Philosophical Dialogue 1 The Whole Comedy and Tragedy of Philosophy: On Aristophanes’ Speech in Plato’s Symposium1 Notes Bibliography 2 A Praise of the Philosophical Written Speech? Ethics and Philosophical Progression in Plato’s Symposium1 Love of honour in Phaedrus’ speech: a stepping stone to love of virtue Pausanias’ speech: beauty as a way of acting Eryximachus’ speech: the harmonizing power of craft smanship Poetry and the art of speech writing: the eulogies of Aristophanes and Agathon The ultimate proof of Plato’s power as a writer. Diotima’s ladder of love Notes Bibliography 3 Socrates’ Appeals to Homer’s Achilles in Plato’s Apology of Socrates and Crito Socrates’ use of Homer’s poetry in the Apology of Socrates The example of Achilles Socrates’ allusion to Homer’s poetry in the Crito Tentative conclusion Appendix: Polycrates’ Accusation of Socrates and its critics Notes Bibliography 4 Plato’s Ring of Gyges and Das Leben der Anderen Gyges and the imagination of the other The Life of Others Here comes the sun: Gyges and the poets Erôs and understanding Notes Bibliography Part Two Virtue and Soul-shaping 5 Plato’s Inverted Theatre: Displacing the Wisdom of the Poets A possible theatre image in the Phaedrus1 Watching something different Watching differently Love Virtue Notes Bibliography 6 Gods, Giants and Philosophers: On Being, Education and Dialogue in Plato’s Sophist 245e6-249d51 The dialogue form of the Sophist An interpretation of the Sophist 245e6-249d5 The dialogical context of the Gigantomachy Interrogating the corporealists Power and eidē Notes Bibliography 7 Philotimia . On Rhetoric, Virtues and Honour in the Symposium1 Introduction The impact of the rules and demands of the encomium genre Preoccupation with honour as displayed within a competitive rhetorical contest: five speakers Excursus: the relationship between the speeches and the paideia Diotima: Th e greater mystery: what erôs does to the philosophers (210a-212b) Discrepancies between the lesser and the greater mystery Aristophanes, a dissenting voice: Eros does not give us virtues, and the value we hope he will give us is completion Alcibiades: disrupting the encomiasts’ harmony between virtues and honour Conclusion Notes Bibliography Part Three Reason and Irrationality 8 The Significance of the Ambiguity of Music in Plato The importance of mousikê in ancient Greece The ambiguity of music: mousikê as pharmakon Music beyond the human: ontological implications of mousikê Mousikê as an educational part of politics The mousikê of philosophy or philosophy as mousikê Notes Bibliography 9 Pleasure, Perception and Images in Plato The replenishment account of pleasure Revisions of replenishment (A): pleasure as perception in the Theaetetus Revisions of replenishment (B): mental pleasures in the Timaeus Revisions of replenishment (C): false pleasures in the Philebus Conclusion: pleasure, perception and images in art Notes Bibliography 10 The Limits of Rationality in Plato’s Phaedo Introduction Ambiguous feelings Fables and mimetic impulses Hypotheses and charms Conclusion Notes Bibliography Part Four Place and Displacement 11 Place ( topos ) and Strangeness (atopia) in the Phaedrus Introduction Part one: place and strangeness in the Prologue Part two: place and strangeness as recurrent themes in the Phaedrus Conclusion: the strangeness of serious play Notes Bibliography 12 Hunt: Method and Metaphor. A Reading of the Sophist 216a1–226a6 Introduction The Prologue (216a1-217b9) Paradigm for the hunting-method (218b6-219b7) An interlude (224d4-e6) Towards a conclusion Notes Bibliography 13 Plato’s Sophist: A Different Look1 Notes Bibliography Index