Plato

This is a wide-ranging study of numbers as a social and cultural phenomenon in ancient Greece, revealing both the instrumentality of numbers to polis life and the complex cultural meanings inherent in their use.

Proclus' commentary on Plato's dialogue Timaeus is arguably the most important commentary on a text of Plato, offering unparalleled insights into eight centuries of Platonic interpretation. It has had an enormous influence on subsequent Plato scholarship. This edition offers the first new English translation of the work for nearly two centuries, building on significant recent advances in scholarship on Neoplatonic commentators. It provides an invaluable record of early interpretations of Plato's dialogue, while also presenting Proclus' own views on the meaning (...) and significance of Platonic philosophy. The present volume, the fifth in the edition, presents Proclus' commentary on the Timaeus, dealing with Proclus' account of static and flowing time; we see Proclus situating Plato's account of the motions of the stars and planets in relation to the astronomical theories of his day. The volume includes a substantial introduction, as well as notes that will shed new light on the text. (shrink)

Asserting that all inquiry is either superfluous or futile, Meno’s paradox threatens the very heart of philosophy. In response, philosophers have tended to refute the account of inquiry that the paradox presupposes, i.e., inquiry as a means of acquiring knowledge, and to promote an alternative view. While this strategy can be effective in refuting Meno, it can also take philosophy in some uncomfortable directions. This, I argue, is the case for both Plato and Heidegger, whose accounts of the nature of (...) inquiry lead either into conditions of excessive constraint or excessive openness. (shrink)

Das Buch des emeritierten Salzburger Gräzisten enthält eine Auswahl seiner in den Jahren seit 1971 entstandenen Aufsätze sowie einen umfangreichen, noch nicht publizierten Beitrag zum sokratisch-platonischen ethischen Intellektualismus. Ausgehend vom Zusammenhang zwischen der areté, dem Wissen vom Guten und dem richtigen Handeln, gelangt Platon zur Konzeption der anámnesis und zur Ideenlehre - ein bisher in der Forschung wenig beachteter Komplex. Weitere Themen der ueber zwanzig Aufsätze sind u.a. die Ontologie des Parmenides, der homo-mensura-Satz des Protagoras und Platons Auseinandersetzung mit ihm, (...) Platons literarische Techniken, die Sozialphilosophie und Sozialpolitik Marc Aurels. Unter dem Aspekt "Lohnt es sich, fuer die Menschen zu leiden?" wird der Prometheusmythos interpretiert. Ausserdem behandelt Dalfen den Wissenschaftsbegriff der griechischen Medizin, die Präsens der Griechen im Denken der modernen Naturwissenschaft, die Wurzeln des europäischen Kulturbegriffs, Politik und Utopie in einer Komödie des Aristophanes, und aus dem Bereich der Religion das Gebet des Kleanthes an Zeus und das Schicksal sowie Deutungen menschlicher Existenz in der fruehen griechischen Dichtung. (shrink)

Western philosophers have made significant contributions to the establishment of government around the world. Philosophers like Plato, Locke, Hobbes, and Machiavelli dramatically influenced the government system not just in foreign countries but also in the Philippines. Hence, this seminar paper explored the political notions of four Western philosophers and positioned them in Duterte’s six years of presidency. In pursuit of this study, the researcher employed a systematic literature review. A systematic review process is used to collect articles, and then a (...) qualitative approach is used to assess them. The researcher came up with four major themes in this study particularly (1) Duterte is a Dictator, not a Philosopher-King, (2) Violators of natural rights, (3) the Sea-monster of Davao, and lastly (4) Love, fear, cruelty, and Duterte. Thus, the researcher concurred that all of the philosophical ideas of the four Western philosophers did not fit or even violated during Duterte’s six years of presidency in the Philippines. (shrink)

In this paper I provide a commentary on and edition of the unpublished and apparently incomplete Medicina contracta of the Flemish philosopher Arnold Geulincx (1624– 1669). This short treatise, dating to c. 1668–1669, was not included in the edition of Geulincx’s works edited by J.P.N. Land, on the ground of its apparent unoriginality. However, it reveals the attempt, by Geulincx, to develop a medicine based on a new account of disease (intended in Cartesian-Platonic terms of the impossibility of the mind (...) using the body through animal spirits), and integrating avant-garde solutions typ- ical of iatrochemistry (in particular those of Franciscus Sylvius) and iatromechanics. The text, which I also consider in the light of Geulincx’s disputations in physiology, is moreover revelatory of his ongoing efforts in understanding the nature of respiration and its related diseases and conditions, such as apoplexy, and of his progressive, albeit not uncritical acceptance of Cartesianism. (shrink)

This chapter aims to obtain a novel anthyphairetic interpretation of Knowledge as Recollection in Plato’s Meno 80d5-86c3 and 97a9-98b6, in a self-contained manner, in line with the anthyphairetic interpretation I have developed for the whole of Plato’s work.Plato sets out to explain his philosophical notion of Knowledge in the Meno, by explaining what he means by Knowledge in the concrete geometrical case of line a such that a2 = 2b2 for a given line b, in fact of the diameter a (...) of a square with side b. For that purpose, Plato introduces the concepts of True Opinion and Logos/Logismos and formulates his answer as follows:the Knowledge of the diameterKnowledge of the diameter a to the side b of a square, a2 = 2b2 is True Opinion plus Logos/Logismos.Our interpretation of True Opinion is that it consists of the first two anthyphairetic relations of a to ba = b + c1, b = 2c1 + c2, andour interpretation of Logos is the Theaetetus’ Logos Criterion for periodic anthyphairesisAnthyphairesisPeriodic anthyphairesis, assuming for the case in question the form of a continuous proportionb/c1 = c1/c2.Knowledge is then the knowledge of the infinite anthyphairesis of a to ba=b+c1b=2c1+c2c1=2c2+c3…cn‐1=2cn+cn+1…\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$ {\displaystyle \begin{array}{l}\mathrm{a}=\mathrm{b}+{\mathrm{c}}_1\\ {}\mathrm{b}=2{\mathrm{c}}_1+{\mathrm{c}}_2\\ {}{\mathrm{c}}_1=2{\mathrm{c}}_2+{\mathrm{c}}_3\\ {}\dots \\ {}{\mathrm{c}}_{\mathrm{n}\hbox{-} 1}=2{\mathrm{c}}_{\mathrm{n}}+{\mathrm{c}}_{\mathrm{n}+1}\\ {}\dots \end{array}} $$\end{document}resulting formally from the two relations above, namely the knowledge of the sequence of the anthyphairetic quotients of a to b [1,2,2,2,…], denoted for short [1, period (2)].Finally, Recollection is a (poetic) reformulation of the repetition c1/c2 of the ratio b/c1, instituting the complete knowledge of the anthyphairesis Anthyphairesisof a to b.The MenoMeno might appear as an isolated work of geometrical Knowledge, of the dyad, certainly related to the Pythagorean discovery of the incommensurability of the diameter to the side of a square, but, for Plato, the Meno is something more, is, in fact, a paradigmatical case for his philosophical theory of Ideas/True Intelligible Beings, and thus the quest for Knowledge in the Meno opens the gate and provides a key for the whole of Plato’s philosophy.The philosophical terms that PlatoPlato uses to describe the geometrical situation, namely True Opinion and Logos, fit in his philosophical theory and strongly suggest that for Plato, a true Intelligible Being is a dyad, to wit either the in the second hypothesis of the Parmenides or the in the Sophist, in the philosophical analogue of anthyphairesisAnthyphairesis, satisfying the philosophical analogue of Theaetetus’ Logos Criterion for anthyphairetic periodicity, as it becomes amply clear in the revealing divisions (of the Angler, Noble Sophistry, and the Sophist) in the Sophist, and in the description of the paradigmatical true Being in the second hypothesis in the ParmenidesParmenidesin terms of the anthyphairetic division of the dyad plus the circularity of the “hapseis”/logoi.Knowledge of True Being, namely the dyad is True Opinion, namely an initial finite segment of the anthyphairesis of the dyad plus Logos, namely the philosophic analogue of Theaetetus’ Logos Criterion. Theaetetus’ proof of the Pythagorean Proposition: if a2 = 2b2, then Anth (a, b) = [1, period (2)].The description of an Intelligible Being and its Knowledge takes various forms in Plato’s dialogues but remains largely equivalent to the model introduced in the Meno.[Part I] The first one and a half steps of the anthyphairesis of a to b (a = b + c1, b = 2c1 + c2) plus. (shrink)

Plato, most unexpectedly, in the middle of the Timaeus (48e2-49a7) declares that the sensible bodies cannot be explained solely by their participation in the intelligible, as we were led to believe by reading the long succession of all his previous dialogues, but that it is now necessary to introduce, beside the intelligibles and the sensibles, a Third Kind, the Receptacle.We must, however, in beginning our fresh account of the Universe make more distinctions than we did before; for whereas then we (...) distinguished two Kinds (τότε μὲν γὰρ δύο εἴδη διειλόμεθα), we must now declare another Third Kind (τρίτον ἄλλο γένος). For our former exposition, those two were sufficient, one of them being assumed as a Paradigm (παραδείγματος εἶδος), intelligible, and always self-similar Beings (νοητὸν καὶ ἀεὶ κατὰ ταὐτὰ ὄν), and the second as the Paradigm’s Image (μίμημα δὲ παραδείγματος), subject to generation and visible (γένεσιν ἔχον καὶ ὁρατόν). A Third Kind we did not at that time distinguish, considering that those two were sufficient, but now the argument seems to compel us (ἔοικεν εἰσαναγκάζειν) to try to reveal by words a Kind that is baffling and obscure (χαλεπὸν καὶ ἀμυδρὸν εἶδος). What essential property, then, are we to conceive it to possess? This in particular – that it should be the receptacle (ὑποδοχὴν), and as it were the nurse of all Generation (πάσης εἶναι γενέσεως αὐτὴν οἷον τιθήνην).Yet true though this statement is, we need to describe it more plainly 48e2-49a7.(Emphasis by italics or bold here and in future occurences is ours)It is fair to state that both the reason that Plato felt compelled to introduce the Third Kind and its nature have so far eluded understanding and remained a mystery, and this is certainly not because of any lack in efforts.In the present work, we aim to obtain a new and, we believe, definitive understanding of the nature of the Receptacle and of the reason that Plato felt obliged to introduce it. This resolution is possible only because we have uncovered, under Plato’s fascinating account, the well-hidden deep Mathematics of incommensurability and of infinite anthyphairesis, some going back to the Pythagoreans, some discovered recently by Theaetetus, the great resident mathematician of the Academy, and which are fundamental, not only for Plato’s philosophical system of the unchanging intelligible Beings, but also for his ambitious description of the incessantly changing sensible, physical World, as well. Without reaching an understanding of the underlying Mathematics, it is impossible to gain any true understanding of the philosophy based on it; it is very much like trying to understand Newtonian physics without calculus or quantum physics without Hilbert space operators.The starting point of our work is the interpretation of the intelligible Being as the philosophical analogue of a dyad in periodic anthyphairesis, and the pre-Timaeus interpretation of a sensible body participating in the intelligible, in terms of an initial finite segment of the infinite intelligible anthyphairesis. The serious problem that results from the built-in intelligible anthyphairetic infinityAnthyphairetic infinity is that this infinity leads to the formation of infinite kosmoi, a problem akin to the intelligible Third Man Argument; it has not been realized that the sole reason for the necessity of introducing the Third Kind in the Timaeus is the necessity to avoid infinite kosmoi. At this point, it must be emphasized that the intelligibility is neutral on this problem, its only necessary condition being that the intelligible must retain the control of the sensibles, whether these sensibles live in infinitely many kosmoi or in one kosmos.Plato attempts to deal with the problem, by eliminating the infinite multitude of anthyphairetic remainders, replacing them by the mathematically equivalent tight double inequalitiesDouble inequalities and generalized side and diameter numbers (the “convergents” of modern continued fractions), which are vividly and aptly described, in order to represent every sensible body, as a dyad consisting of Content & Receptacle, but he realizes that such arithmetical methods, while they work perfectly well for the geometric anthyphairetic remainders, fail to make sense for the intelligible philosophical analoguesPhilosophical analogue of the geometric anthyphairetic remainders.It is precisely because of this differentiation that Plato finds it necessary to introduce the geometric Third Kind; it consists of the four primary bodiesFour primary bodies, each identified with one of the surfaces of the four (minus the 12hedron) canonical solids, primary earth PE/cube, primary water PW/20hedron, primary air PA/8hedron, primary fire PF/pyramid, studied in the Theaetetean Book XIII of Euclid’s ElementsElements. The comprehension of the canonical solids in the sphere, a central theme in Book XIII, in fact the world sphere in Plato’s mind, provides several crucial advantages for this choice, to wit:It makes possible the canonical comparisonCanonical comparison by which the primary earth PE turns to be incommensurable, in fact in periodic anthyphairesis to each of the other three, mutually commensurable, primary bodies, and thus allows for the substitution of the intelligible dyad by the Third Kind dyad in its role of generating and being the cause of the sensible bodies and their motions.(“intelligence”) It makes possible the participation, via the Soul of the World, of the Third Kind into the intelligible, thus turning the Third Kind into a “bastard intelligible” and salvaging Plato’s absolutely essential philosophical requirement that the intelligible governs over the sensibles (by means of True Opinion).(“necessity”) It entraps and imprisons the Third Kind in the World sphere, not allowing the generation of infinitely many remainders and Kosmoi above and beyond the initial one, but turning, equivalently, the participation into sensible dyads, vividly and accurately described as having the form Content & Receptacle, underlying the tight remainder-free double inequalities and anthyphairetic “convergents,” thus saving the One Kosmos with the traditional four (not elements any more, but) derived kinds. 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As is well known, Plato was a significant influence on Gadamer’s thought. Nevertheless, Gadamer’s interpretation of Plato changed through the years, and he became increasing sympathetic towards Plato in his later works after 1960’s Truth and Method. This article will examine how Gadamer’s writings on Plato after Truth and Method may inform our interpretation of his magnum opus. I will present the case that this not only leads to rethinking Gadamer’s relation to Plato, but also has wider implications for his (...) hermeneutics and for potential reconsiderations of key aspects of the text. I point to the possibility that if we do not sufficiently appreciate these changes in Gadamer’s interpretation of Plato, this may not only distort our understanding of Gadamer’s reading of Plato, but perhaps more importantly neglect how Platonic conceptions may inform his own hermeneutic project as it is outlined in Truth and Method. (shrink)

This article presents a case that former President of the United States Donald Trump was a tyrant-like leader in the mold of the tyrant in Plato’s Republic. While he does not perfectly embody the tyrant as presented in the Republic, he captures its core feature. Like the tyrant, Trump is driven by unregulated desires that reflect what Plato describes as an extreme freedom that underlies and threatens democratic regimes. Extreme freedom is manifested in Trump’s disregard for social and legal norms, (...) which mirrors the lawlessness of the tyrant. The people, in turn, interpret that posture as a mark of authenticity. Understanding Trump’s appeal in the United States helps alert friends of democracy to the possible rise of tyrant-like figures. In closing, and as a way of remedying the harm done by the tyrannical soul, the article recommends that society help temper tyrant-like passions in the people through a rededication to civic equality. (shrink)

Critics often suggest that Socrates’ portrait of the philosopher’s inspired madness in his second speech in Plato’s Phaedrus is incompatible with the other types of divine madness outlined in the same speech, namely poetic, prophetic, and purificatory madness. This incompatibility is frequently taken to show that Socrates’ characterisation of philosophers as mad is disingenuous or misleading in some way. While philosophical madness and the other types of divine madness are distinguished by the non-philosophical crowd’s different interpretations of them, I aim (...) to show that they are not, in fact, presented as incompatible. Socrates’ pair of speeches demonstrates that madness can be divided into harmful and beneficial kinds, and in Socrates’ key discussion of philosophical madness (249c4-e4), I argue that the crowd correctly recognises that the philosopher is mad on the basis of his eccentricity, but wrongly assumes that the philosopher’s madness is of the harmful type because it fails to realise that the philosopher is enthused. Socrates’ second speech provides information about human souls and gods which shows that philosophical madness belongs to the beneficial type and so falls under the heading of divine enthusiasm after all. Importantly, human souls and gods are shown in the speech to be roughly isomorphic. Both philosophical and other kinds of divine madness involve having something divine inside a human body (entheos): in the former a human soul has become godlike; in the latter a human soul has been displaced by a god. Because of this, I propose that philosophy is presented as a genuine form of divine madness alongside the other more conventional examples. (shrink)

Plato’s attitude towards women in his major political works, the Republic and Laws, is complex. On the one hand, Plato argues that in well-run cities, women should hold positions of rule; but on the other, he suggests that women are inferior to men with respect to virtue. To reconcile these conflicting attitudes, some scholars argue that Plato’s progressive proposals are about women as they could be given the right education and environment, while his derogatory comments are about women as they (...) are. Surprisingly, however, commentators who defend this line of thought fail to identify which aspect or aspects of women’s current social position is the problem. I argue that a central problem is women’s role in the private family. More specifically, I argue that Plato thinks the institution of the private family and household is an impediment to virtue; since the private family and household is the primary domain of women, they will be particularly susceptible to its ill effects. In short, individuals’ characters are shaped by the institutions they inhabit; the private family and household is a character-shaping institution that is the primary domain for women, and as a result their characters will be shaped for the worse. (shrink)

Citizenship, with its presumptive rights, privileges and obligations, has been a fundamental challenge confronting the state since the classical Greek era and the transformation and reorganization of the centralized medieval Holy Roman Empire after the Thirty Years War. With the changing patterns of state formation from the large and unwieldy empires organized into absolutist states to the more nationalistic/linguistic formations a recurring issue has been the constitutional or legal guarantees of the rights of the citizen as well as his/her obligations (...) to the state. This paper engaged in a nuanced study of Plato’s Crito as it relates the contradictions of citizenship as social membership and as participation in the modern state. The primary objective was to adapt Socrates’ experience to discuss the citizenship challenge in the modern state and driven by the research question on the implications of the emergence of new challenges to the contradictions of citizenship. Social contract theory by Thomas Hobbes served as the theoretical framework. Data collection was mainly from secondary sources such as academic journals, books, newspapers and internet sources, and data analysis based on the content and textual analysis of extant and relevant literature on the subject matter. Conclusively, the study realized that citizenship in the modern state is determined largely by the protection, in various ramifications, given to the citizen by the state, but that given a change in the circumstances many would decline to die for the state. Accordingly, it recommended a mutualism in the relationship and responsibilities between that state and the citizen of the modern state, particularly the underdeveloped states of the Third World. (shrink)

There has been a steady stream of articles written on the relations between political thought and the interpretation of literature, but there remains a need for a book that both introduces and significantly contributes to the field – particularly one that shows in detail how we can think more freely and creatively about political possibilities by reading and reflecting on politically significant literature. This volume offers analytically acute and culturally rich ways of understanding how it is that we can productively (...) think philosophically about political literature and what kind of distinctive conceptual progress we can make by doing so. Given the extremely widespread interest in political issues, this volume will strike resonant chords far and wide, while offering something that has not been done quite in this way and for which the time certainly seems right. (shrink)

The following hopes to bring Plato’s unwritten doctrines into proximity with Irigaray’s concept of the Two as found in works like To Be Two or I love to you. By focusing on the the indefinite Dyad, Plato's reported co-archai with the One, it will be evidenced that Platonism begins and ends with a One which is not One (a kind of Two). Further, in this Dyad's failure to be One, it ultimately comes to possess its own productive and destructive power (...) or, to use Irigaray's words, to love toward the Other in such a way as to produce or give birth to other others, real difference. Finally, Irigaray’s conception of the Two has dramatic social implications for her as a feminist, grounding a transformation of the political order of things. Due to this political import, the final section shifts to questioning whether Plato’s reported protological principles, the One and the indefinite Dyad, could perform a similar work. (shrink)

This chapter analyses how one thirteenth century Parisian philosopher, Nicholas of Vaudémont (fl. 1370s), understood the tension between the common good in the sense of the good of the community as a whole, and individual good in his commentary of Aristotle’s Politics. The analysis proceeds in relation to two of Nicholas’ questions. The first of them concerns the classical problem of whether or not a virtuous person should sacrifice his life for the sake of his community; and the second question (...) is related to the justification of capital punishment for the sake of the common good. It is claimed that Nicholas entertains at least a theoretical possibility that virtuous action may not necessarily entail the common good and that he further distinguishes the concern for the common good from the private sphere by arguing that responsibility of the common good rests solely with the political ruler. As a result, the tension becomes a fracture as the theoretical distance between the good of an individual and the common good widens. (shrink)

"Sapiolatry," the excessive reverence and idolization of historical figures renowned for their wisdom, poses a significant challenge to critical thinking and innovation. In the article "Say Goodbye to Plato," we delve into the concept of sapiolatry and its implications for our engagement with the teachings of revered figures like Plato. By exploring the roots, consequences, and the case of Plato, we highlight the necessity of moving beyond uncritical adoration towards a more dynamic and contextual interpretation of ancient wisdom. The article (...) advocates for a balanced and critical approach to studying the teachings of revered figures, emphasizing the importance of adapting their wisdom to address contemporary issues and foster innovation. (shrink)

This work rests on the assumption that Plato as ethic is undeservedly ignored. He is traditionally considered to be the author of objective philosophical idealism. A more careful analysis proves that the famous scholar of antiquity is primarily the author of ontoethical philosophical conception. His essential philosophical convictions are very close to those of his teacher and greatest authority, Socrates. The later maintained that the true objects of philosophical studies were society and individuals together with their ethical orientations. Plato supplemented (...) these ideas with the ontoethical conception of universum. This helps one understand his theory of "ideas": according to the Greek world view, nature, in its totality, was not only considered to be beautiful and harmonious, but also sensible. So the ideas of Good, Beauty, Truth, and Justice became the real reason of the world’s existence. A new aspect of Plato’s world view is his retributionalistic conception, according to which every person’s life is assessed after death. In this sense, Plato is the author of religious ethics. (shrink)

This book is an edited collection on one of Plato’s most dramatic as well as most complex dialogues, where a defence of the philosopher’s way of life is carried out against the background of interconnected rhetorical and political stances of the time.

It has a long history for the exploration of the origin and essence of human consciousness with different definitions and explanations in various fields such as philosophy, medicine, sociology, biology, and psychology. However, all of them had not been recognized so far. The main reason is that the complexity of consciousness leads to the inability of various fields to understand its essence fully, reasonably, and comprehensively, and there are still significant differences for it, and which have become an eternal mystery. (...) So, it is necessary to delve deeper into it. Here we show that this article concludes that the origin of consciousness comes from natural matter, the essence of consciousness is material information, the ability of consciousness is the degree to which the complexity and orderliness of material information are utilized, and consciousness has the attributes of congenital, materiality, systematicness, complexity, dynamics, difference, and selfness according to the analysis, summary and induction of knowledge from various disciplines. (shrink)

In Plato's dialogues, we find many references to Corybantic rites-rites of initiation performed in honor of the goddess Rhea. But in the dialogue titled Euthydemus, there is more than a mere reference to the rites to be found. Within the context of Socratic dialectic, the ancient rites of the Corybantes are acted out-although veiled and distorted. This is what Carl Levenson argues in his book. Since the Corybantic rites are of the Dionysian/Eleusinian type, Plato gives us a glimpse of the (...) reality of Dionysiac ecstacy. This interesting knowledge of these rites has usually been lost in the academic assertion that the Euthydemus was just a satire on philosophic arguing (in which it is), and hence it has been consigned to a marginal place in Plato's canon. But here Plato is rejecting his abstract theories in favor of intimacy with the reality of the world, of matter and being rather than form. Levenson states that complete immersion in the material substrate of the world is what Plato discovered at the heart of Dionysian ecstacy, and the aim of ecstacy, as Plato said, is to purify the soul of ancient guilt. (shrink)

Americans today seem to be more divided than at any time since the Civil War. Our differences are not just political and moral, but philosophical and even spiritual. Red and Blue America hardly seem to live in the same reality. Something has gone terribly wrong with the American political community. It has been a long time since the people of the United States fully exercised their sovereign authority to choose the officials in government whose primary job is to protect the (...) people's natural rights according to the Constitution. Our political community has become something different. America, our "regime," has become post-constitutional. Yet it is not entirely clear what this post-constitutional arrangement is, how it operates, who is in charge, or how to fix it. Where did this crisis come from? Can it be overcome? What does the future hold for the survival of the American Constitution? Glenn Ellmers--a senior fellow with the Claremont Institute, prolific analyst of current affairs, and scholar of political philosophy--explores the deepest roots of our political turmoil and shows the connections between government bureaucracy, the misuse of science, and the leftwing ideology that controls so much of our public and private life. (shrink)

Love and Friendship in the Western Tradition comprises a collection of essays written over a 25 year period by the late Rev. Professor James McEvoy on the theme of friendship. The book traces the genesis and development of philosophical treatments of friendship from Greek philosophy, through the Middle Ages, to modern and postmodern philosophy. The collection's three major concerns are: (1) the history of philosophical discussions of friendship; (2) the role of friendship in the cultivation of the philosophical life; (3) (...) the marginalization of friendship as a theme for philosophical reflection and practice in the modern period. As the author was primarily a medievalist, a great deal of the focus of the essays is on the development of the theme of friendship in the Middle Ages (in the thought of Augustine, Aquinas, Aelred of Rievaulx, Henry of Ghent, Robert Grosseteste, etc.). However, this focus, while a value in itself, also serves to connect philosophical perspectives on friendship from before and after the middle ages. It connects to the time before inasmuch as much of the work done on friendship in the Middle Ages is anchored in interpretations of Aristotle and Plato, and it connects to the time after by providing a counterpoint to the modern paradigm of what constitutes the philosophical life. The collection combines historical with thematic approaches to scholarship on this issue and is one of the only books of its kind to do so. It is, perhaps, unique in its historical sweep and will prove to be a canonical source for further research on this topic. (shrink)

Studies Plato's approach to argumentation, exploring his role as logician, rhetorician, and dialectician in a way that sees these three aspects working together.

An examination of Leo Strauss's 1948 notebook and other writings on the Euthyphro, Plato's dialogue on piety, using close analysis and line-by-line commentary.

Interprets the Letters as a literary unity (designed almost as a novel by Plato) and provides insight into and information about Plato's self-understanding and his overall intentions as an author of his dialogues.

This commentary on Plato's Philebus reconciles a close analysis of the text with a new interpretation of the dialogue. In Philebum focuses on the overarching metaphysical and cosmological coherency of the dialogue rather than its ethical import. This interpretation contrasts with the more common segmented philological analysis of this most evocative of Platonic dialogues. Plato's late ontology and theory of an immanent Good portray a very different philosophical terrain than that of the transcendental visions of the Good found in other (...) dialogues. The final chapter of In Philebum, entitled "The Life of the Speculative Philosopher," extends this analysis of the dialogue to contemporary speculative philosophy. Based on Plato's portrayal of a fourfold onto-cosmology and of the Good as measurability, proportionality, and intelligence, In Philebum makes connections between the doctrine of measured order-relations, triadicity, quadratic structure, and self-explanation that figure predominantly in contemporary speculative philosophy. It is intended for a broader audience of readers of Plato as well as for graduate students and commentators on Plato. In Philebum contains a Prolegomenon on the controversies surrounding the structural divisions of the Philebus as well as an up-to-date bibliography and general index. (shrink)

Plato and the Metaphysical Feminine offers a new interpretation of the role of the female and the feminine in Plato's political dialogues--the Republic, Laws, and Timaeus--informed by Deleuze's film theory and Irigaray's psychoanalytic feminism. Irene Han reads Plato against the grain in order to close the gap between the vitalists and Plato, instead of magnifying their differences. Han explores the ambivalence that the vitalist tradition, Irigaray, and Derrida have towards Platonism. The application of Deleuzian and Irigarayan concepts to the ancient (...) texts produces a new reading of Plato, focusing on the centrality and importance of motion, change, sensuality, and becoming to Platonic philosophy and, thereby, reinterprets Platonic philosophy in the direction of Heraclitus rather than Parmenides: as feminist rather than masculinist, and as mimetic. It therefore prioritizes Heraclitean principles of movement and flux over Form, the feminine over masculine, and materiality, feeling, or sensation over abstraction and universal essence. Han's exploration illustrates how, in Plato's thought, the feminine maps itself onto the plane of phenomena--a plane associated with vitalist themes such as motion, tactility, and change (metabolē). Platonic metaphysics is recontextualized by illustrating how Being expresses itself through processes of (feminine) becoming. With this reformulation, the resulting account of Platonic Being destabilizes any purported Platonic dualism. (shrink)

Economic inequality is one of the most daunting challenges of our time, with public debate often turning to questions of whether it is an inevitable outcome of economic systems and what, if anything, can be done about it. But why, exactly, should inequality worry us? The Greatest of All Plagues demonstrates that this underlying question has been a central preoccupation of some of the most eminent political thinkers of the Western intellectual tradition. David Lay Williams shares bold new perspectives on (...) the writings and ideas of Plato, Jesus, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Karl Marx. He shows how they describe economic inequality as a source of political instability and a corrupter of character and soul, and how they view unchecked inequality as a threat to their most cherished values, such as justice, faith, civic harmony, peace, democracy, and freedom. Williams draws invaluable insights into the societal problems generated by what Plato called "the greatest of all plagues," and examines the solutions employed through the centuries. An eye-opening work of intellectual history, The Greatest of All Plagues recovers a forgotten past for some of the most timeless books in the Western canon, revealing how economic inequality has been a paramount problem throughout the history of political thought. (shrink)

What are the prospects for ambitious political reform in communities of traditional, passionate, and even self-righteous citizens? Can thoughtful legislators create a healthy society for citizens whose judgment is typically unsound? In a searching and provocative analysis, Ryan Balot addresses these timely - though universal - political questions by offering a novel interpretation of Plato's Laws. Turning to the ancient past is essential to reinvigorating our contemporary understanding of these all-important issues. Previous readers have either celebrated the work's idealism or (...) denounced its totalitarianism. Balot, by contrast, refuses to interpret the dialogue as a political blueprint, whether admirable or misguided. He shows instead that it constitutes Plato's greatest philosophical investigation of political life. In this transformative re-appraisal, Balot reveals that Plato's goal was to cultivate a tragic attitude toward our political passions, commitments, and aspirations. The result is a profound political inquiry with far-reaching consequences. (shrink)

This Critical Guide offers detailed analysis of all parts of Plato's Gorgias, together with diverse perspectives on its advocacy of a philosophical, just life as against a life of rhetoric and injustice.