Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing

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Overview

Plato's dialogues are usually understood as simple examples of philosophy in action. In this book Professor Rowe treats them rather as literary-philosophical artefacts, shaped by Plato's desire to persuade his readers to exchange their view of life and the universe for a different view which, from their present perspective, they will barely begin to comprehend. What emerges is a radically new Plato: a Socratic throughout, who even in the late dialogues is still essentially the Plato (and the Socrates) of the ...
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Overview

Plato's dialogues are usually understood as simple examples of philosophy in action. In this book Professor Rowe treats them rather as literary-philosophical artefacts, shaped by Plato's desire to persuade his readers to exchange their view of life and the universe for a different view which, from their present perspective, they will barely begin to comprehend. What emerges is a radically new Plato: a Socratic throughout, who even in the late dialogues is still essentially the Plato (and the Socrates) of the Apology and the so-called 'Socratic' dialogues. This book aims to understand Plato both as a philosopher and as a writer, on the assumption that neither of these aspects of the dialogues can be understood without the other. The argument of the book is closely based on Plato's text, but should be accessible to any serious reader of Plato, whether professional philosopher or classicist, student or general reader.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780521131261
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • Publication date: 2/11/2010
  • Pages: 304
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Meet the Author

CHRISTOPHER ROWE is Professor of Greek in the Department of Classics & Ancient History at Durham University.

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Table of Contents

Preface     vii
Preliminaries: reading Plato     1
Introduction: The simile of the cave in the Republic     55
The Apology: Socrates' defence, Plato's manifesto     66
The Phaedo: Socrates' defence continued     96
'Examining myself and others', I: knowledge and soul in Charmides, First Alcibiades, Meno, Republic, Euthyphro, Phaedrus     122
The moral psychology of the Gorgias     143
'Examining myself and others', II: soul, the excellences and the 'longer road' in the Republic     164
Appendix to Chapter 5: Socrates vs Thrasymachus in Republic I     186
Interlude: A schedule of the genuine dialogues     198
Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, I: knowledge and belief in Book V     200
Knowledge and the philosopher-rulers of the Republic, II: the limits of knowledge     214
The Theaetetus, and the preferred Socratic-Platonic account of knowledge     229
The form of the good and the good: the Republic in conversation with other ('pre-Republic') dialogues     239
Republic and Timaeus: the status of Timaeus' account of the physical universe     255
Plato on the art of writing and speaking (logoi): the Phaedrus     266
Epilogue: What is Platonism?     273
Bibliography     277
Index     282
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