Zina Giannopoulou - The Midwife of Platonism: Text and Subtext in Plato's Theaetetus - Journal of the History of Philosophy 43:3 Journal of the History of Philosophy 43.3 353-354 David Sedley. The Midwife of Platonism: Text and Subtext in Plato's Theaetetus. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004. Pp. x + 201. Cloth, $60.00. Scholarly interest in the Theaetetus, Plato's most systematic treatment of knowledge, has been recently on the rise. While comprehensive studies, such as Myles Burnyeat's The Theaetetus of Plato and (...) Ronald Polansky's Philosophy and Knowledge: A Commentary on Plato's Theaetetus , have valuably illuminated existing interpretative debates, they have also either neglected or treated marginally some of the dialogue's most thorny philosophical issues (such as, for example, the puzzling formal.. (shrink)

Plato's Symposium is an exceptionally multi-layered dialogue. At once a historical document, a philosophical drama that enacts abstract ideas in an often light-hearted way, and a literary masterpiece, it has exerted an influence that goes well beyond the confines of philosophy. The essays in this volume, by leading scholars, offer detailed analyses of all parts of the work, focusing on the central and much-debated theme of erōs or 'human desire' - which can refer both to physical desire or desire for (...) happiness. They reveal thematic continuities between the prologue and the various speeches as well as between the speeches themselves, and present a rich collection of contrasting yet complementary readings of Diotima's speech. The volume will be invaluable for classicists and philosophers alike, and for all who are interested in one of Plato's most fascinating and challenging dialogues. (shrink)

Zina Giannopoulou offers a new reading of Theaetetus, Plato's most systematic examination of knowledge, alongside Apology, Socrates' speech in defence of his philosophical practice, and argues that the former text is a philosophical ...

What do god, a novelist, craftsmen, and capitalist monopolies have in common? José Saramago’s The Cave engages with this question in a way that recalls Plato’s Republic and its notion of mimesis: the mortal agents imitate divinity by wielding absolute power over products—a novel, ceramic dolls, a commercial-cum-residential center—that imprison their denizens in illusory worlds. The Cave contains a cave and various cave-like constructions that compound the prevailing sense of control and entrapment. Freedom from The Cave and its coercive power (...) requires finishing and exiting the novel. (shrink)

In this work, I argue that in Theaetetus and Alcibiades I Socrates helps the eponymous characters to acquire self-knowledge by practicing dialectic as a divinely assisted art. In both dialogues, self-knowledge is cashed out as mental seeing and involves inspecting the contents of one’s soul and assessing their viability. The article uses the eye/soul analogy of Alcibiades I as a springboard for an examination of a dialectically induced self-knowledge in the dialogue and for a study of the manifestations of this (...) practice in Theaetetus via Socratic midwifery. (shrink)

Beloved by film and art aficionados and fans of neo-noir cinema, Mulholland Drive is one of the most important and enigmatic films of recent years. It occupies a central and controversial position in the work of its director, David Lynch, who won the best director award at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival for the movie. Mulholland Drive in the Routledge Philosophers on Film series is the first full philosophical appraisal of Lynch's film. Beginning with an introduction by the editor, the (...) volume explores the following topics: the identity of the self and its persistence through time the central, dual roles played by fantasy and reality throughout the film whether Mulholland Drive is best understood epistemologically via reason and language, or whether, as Lynch himself argues, by one's 'inner feelings' and emotions parallels between Mulholland Drive and Kafka's The Castle , both of which pit their protagonists at the mercy of unseen forces Mulholland Drive and romanticism. Additional key themes are also discussed, such as the interpenetration of ethics, classical tragedy, and the contrasting philosophical arguments of Plato and Nietzsche on tragic drama. These themes make Mulholland Drive essential and engaging reading for students of philosophy, especially aesthetics and ethics, as well as film studies. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that in the digression in Plato’s Theaetetus godlikeness may be construed as Socrates’ ethical achievement, part and parcel of his art of mental mid­wifery. Although the philosophical life of contemplation and detachment from earthly affairs exemplifies the human ideal of godlikeness, Socrates’ godlikeness is an inferior but legitimate species of the genus. This is the case because Socratic godlikeness abides by the two requirements for godlikeness that Socrates sets forth in the digression: first, it is (...) a kind of escape from the phenomenal world; and second, it allows Socrates to become just and pious with wisdom. The crucial difference between Socrates and the philosopher that prevents the former from being as godlike as the latter is his epistemic barrenness, on account of which he cannot define the constitutive virtues of godlikeness, i.e., justice, piety, and wisdom. As a barren midwife of the intellect, Socrates practices godlikeness but does not have a philosophical understanding of its nature. Nevertheless, by extolling the life of the philosopher he urges others to aspire to what he can never attain, philosophical godlikeness. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that in the digression in Plato’s Theaetetus godlikeness may be construed as Socrates’ ethical achievement, part and parcel of his art of mental mid­wifery. Although the philosophical life of contemplation and detachment from earthly affairs exemplifies the human ideal of godlikeness, Socrates’ godlikeness is an inferior but legitimate species of the genus. This is the case because Socratic godlikeness abides by the two requirements for godlikeness that Socrates sets forth in the digression: first, it is (...) a kind of escape from the phenomenal world; and second, it allows Socrates to become just and pious with wisdom. The crucial difference between Socrates and the philosopher that prevents the former from being as godlike as the latter is his epistemic barrenness, on account of which he cannot define the constitutive virtues of godlikeness, i.e., justice, piety, and wisdom. As a barren midwife of the intellect, Socrates practices godlikeness but does not have a philosophical understanding of its nature. Nevertheless, by extolling the life of the philosopher he urges others to aspire to what he can never attain, philosophical godlikeness. (shrink)

Par son rôle déterminant dans la réussite scolaire et professionnelle, ainsi que dans l’insertion sociale, l’apprentissage de l’orthographe lexicale représente un défi majeur pour les élèves du primaire. Dans ce contexte, nombreux sont les enseignants, orthophonistes et chercheurs à s’intéresser à la question des outils utiles à son enseignement et à son apprentissage, et à avoir recours notamment à des bases de données lexicales. Bien qu’elles constituent un apport considérable pour le domaine, les ressources existantes souffrent de plusieurs insuffisances. D’une (...) part, elles s’appuient sur des corpus de référence peu représentatifs du lexique scolaire auquel les élèves sont exposés au primaire, et d’autre part, elles ne permettent pas aux utilisateurs de déterminer la façon dont se développe l’acquisition de l’orthographe lexicale. À la lumière de ces constats, nous avons élaboré une ressource lexicale hybride, rendant compte à la fois de la fréquence et des caractéristiques linguistiques du lexique scolaire présent dans les manuels du primaire au Québec et, pour une partie des mots de ce lexique, de la capacité des élèves à les orthographier à chaque niveau du primaire. Dans cet article, nous revenons dans un premier temps sur la méthodologie d’élaboration de cette nouvelle base de données - nommée ÉQOL - dotée d’une Échelle Québécoise d’acquisition de l’Orthographe Lexicale, à l’origine de la création de la base de données. Dans un deuxième temps, nous évaluons l’apport de cet outil. La comparaison de notre base de données (Stanké, Royle, Rezzonico, Moreau, Dumais & Le Mené 2018) à des outils existants (trois bases de données et une échelle d’acquisition lexicale) témoigne de la pertinence de la création d’un outil propre au lexique scolaire adressé aux élèves du primaire et de la nécessité d’utiliser une nouvelle échelle d’acquisition de l’orthographe lexicale, spécifique aux compétences orthographiques des élèves québécois. (shrink)

We describe the design and evaluation of a sub-clinical digital assessment tool that integrates digital biomarkers of depression. Based on three standard cognitive tasks on which people with depression have been known to perform differently than a control group, we iteratively designed a digital assessment tool that could be deployed outside of laboratory contexts, in uncontrolled home environments on computer systems with widely varying system characteristics. We conducted two online studies, in which participants used the assessment tool in their own (...) homes, and completed subjective questionnaires including the Patient Health Questionnaire —a standard self-report tool for assessing depression in clinical contexts. In a first study, we demonstrate that each task can be used in isolation to significantly predict PHQ-9 scores. In a second study, we replicate these results and further demonstrate that when used in combination, behavioral metrics from the three tasks significantly predicted PHQ-9 scores, even when taking into account demographic factors known to influence depression such as age and gender. A multiple regression model explained 34.4% of variance in PHQ-9 scores with behavioral metrics from each task providing unique and significant contributions to the prediction. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Phaedra's Labyrinth as the Paradigm of Passion: Racine's Aesthetic Formulation of Mimetic Desire Jacques-Jude Lépine Haverford College The actual model of Racine's Phaedra is no more the one that he claims to follow in his preface than one ofthose which his critics have sought in vain to find in the works of his immediate predecessors.1 Indeed, the comparative reading ofRacine's last profane tragedy against his sources shows (...) that Seneca and Euripides only provided a very general framework, one might say a traditional theme, which Racine completely recasts on the level of the plot, structure, characters, poetic esthetics, and theatrical performance. On the other hand, the myth of Phaedra's involuntary passion for her stepson Hippolytus, the hunter who was supposed to be atavistically insensitive to erotic seduction, could very well have been reorganized on the basis of another mythological episode which precedes it, the killing of the Minotaur by Theseus in the Labyrinth. There are many explicit references to this episode throughout Racine's Phaedra. There are even more than a rich but strictly thematic critic has been able to detect (see Racine), underscoring the fundamental point of my essay that the intensely poetic character of the Labyrinth, and particularly its function as a fantastic spatial frame, is not simply of a decorative nature. In Racine's work, as in any other genuine literary masterpiece, there is a unity ofcontent and form. The many references to the Labyrinth are determinant for the very subject ofPhaedra, which is the representation of passion, the only subject of interest for Racine. In fact, I intend to demonstrate that Racine used the unique topography of the Labyrinth as a paradigm of the logic of the relationships between his ' These works are Garnier's "Hippolyte" (1573) and Quinault's "Bellérophon" (1671). 48Jacques-Jude Lépine characters because of its capacity for fully expressing the mimetic origin of passion, a decisive discovery the gradual stages towards which may be traced in all his previous works. The Monster Hunt as a Metaphor of the Dramatic Action In order to demonstrate this point, I will start from the textual data, even though it will be necessary to go beyond a simple inventory of the themes explicitly connected to the Labyrinth. The first of these themes is obviously the one of monstrosity. At some point in the play, all the main characters accuse themselves, or are accused, of being a monster (Barthes 115). The relationship between this moral monstrosity (expressed in ambiguous statements suggesting a physical sign) and the return of Theseus, whose numerous monster hunts Hippolytus recalls in the opening scene,2 is easy to see. As has been already noted, the theme of the monster hunt is present from beginning to end of the play, where the fight between Hippolytus and the sea monster occurs (see Jasenas). But the monsterpar excellence is the Minotaur, whose death at the hands of Theseus Phaedra recalls in a famous speech which serves to reveal her passion to Hippolytus through a series of substitutions in the original cast of characters: Oh, why were you too young top have embarked Within the ship that brought him [Theseus] to our shores? You would have been the monster's killer then, In spite of all the windings of his maze. To find your way in that uncertain dark, My sister would have armed you with the thread. But no! In this design I would have been Ahead of her, my sister! Me, not her, It would have been whom love at first inspired; And I it would have been, Prince, I, whose aid Had taught you all the Labyrinth's crooked ways. A single thread would not have been enough To satisfy your lover's fears for you. I would myself have wished to lead the way, And share the perils you were bound to face. Phaedra, into the Labyrinth, with you Would have descended, and with you returned, To safety, or with you have perished. (647-62) 2 See verses 73-90. References to Margaret Rawlings's translation of Phaedra will be given parenthetically in the text. The verse numbers refer to the French edition... (shrink)

the aidos of phaedra and the meaning of the hyppolytus.

While readers of Euripides' Hippolytus have long regarded Phaedra's deltos as a mechanism of punitive revenge, I argue here that the tablet models itself on a judicial curse (defixio) and that its main function is to ensure victory for Phaedra in the upcoming “trial” over her reputation. In support of my thesis I examine three interrelated phenomena: first, Hippolytus' infamous assertion that his tongue swore an oath while his mind remains unsworn (612); second, Phaedra's status as a (...) biaiothanatos; and third, Phaedra's claim that Hippolytus “will learn sophrosune” (731), a speech act that, I conclude, anticipates the silencing effect on Hippolytus of Phaedra's death and her writing. (shrink)

In these comments I express doubts about the success of one aspect of Giannopoulou’s intertextual reading of the Theaetetus and Alcibiades I. I argue that the role of interpersonal eros in prompting or bringing about self-knowledge in another is not adequately accounted for; it is not clear what an eros adds to the dialectic in the Alcibiades. If a robust role for eros as a vehicle of self-knowledge is sought, then the Phaedrus is the more illuminating dialogue because it (...) shows how the lover and beloved are transformed by their eros. But comparisons to the Phaedrus would draw the Alcibiades away from the view of self-knowledge found in the Apology and in Giannopoulou’s interpretation of the Theaetetus. (shrink)

Destrée and Giannopoulou have provided scholars with thirteen exegetically rich and philosophically sophisticated chapters on Plato’s Symposium, written for the most part by scholars with numerous publications (in several cases, numerous books) on Plato, classical Greek moral psychology, and ancient Greek philosophy. Many of the chapters warrant discussion at least to the length that I am allotted for my review of the entire volume, which alas I cannot provide here. Running through the volume is a commitment to understanding Plato’s (...) Symposium through the interrelations of the dialogue’s various encomia of Erôs and their anticipations of Diotima’s account. (shrink)

When Seneca comes to describe the appearance of the monstrous bull which appears out of the sea to kill Hippolytus in answer to his father's curse, he uses a metaphor of birth: the sea's wave is said to be ‘heavy with burdened womb’ . If line 1016 is genuine – it was athetized by Leo – the sea is said to be ‘pregnant with a monster’ . The metaphor has not passed unnoticed in modern commentaries but it has not been (...) fully appreciated. I want to examine further linguistic aspects of the metaphor, and to consider its significance in its literary context. Seneca is a writer who likes – as he himself acknowledges – to re-work tradition: all the more significant, then, when he introduces a conspicuous metaphor into his text which does not appear to have literary antecedents. (shrink)

The language of Seneca’s messenger speeches concentrates preceding patterns of imagery into grotesquely violent action. In three tragedies – Phaedra, Thyestes, and Trojan Women – the report of an anonymous messenger dominates an entire act. All three scenes describe gruesome deaths: the impalement of Hippolytus on a tree trunk in Phaedra, Atreus’ butchering of his nephews in Thyestes, and the slaughter of Astyanax and Polyxena in Trojan Women. In portraying violence, these messenger speeches repurpose language established in earlier (...) scenes to realize and deform a dominant theme of each play: distorted sexuality, appetite, and moral dissolution. (shrink)