Plato's Philosophers: The Coherence of the Dialogues
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
Faced with the difficult task of discerning Plato’s true ideas from the contradictory voices he used to express them, scholars have never fully made sense of the many incompatibilities within and between the dialogues. In the magisterial Plato’s Philosophers, Catherine Zuckert explains for the first time how these prose dramas cohere to reveal a comprehensive Platonic understanding of philosophy.
To expose this coherence, Zuckert examines the dialogues not in their supposed order of composition but according to the dramatic order in which Plato indicates they took place. This unconventional arrangement lays bare a narrative of the rise, development, and limitations of Socratic philosophy. In the drama’s earliest dialogues, for example, non-Socratic philosophers introduce the political and philosophical problems to which Socrates tries to respond. A second dramatic group shows how Socrates develops his distinctive philosophical style. And, finally, the later dialogues feature interlocutors who reveal his philosophy’s limitations. Despite these limitations, Zuckert concludes, Plato made Socrates the dialogues’ central figure because Socrates raises the fundamental human question: what is the best way to live?
Plato’s dramatization of Socratic imperfections suggests, moreover, that he recognized the apparently unbridgeable gap between our understandings of human life and the nonhuman world. At a time when this gap continues to raise questions—about the division between sciences and the humanities and the potentially dehumanizing effects of scientific progress—Zuckert’s brilliant interpretation of the entire Platonic corpus offers genuinely new insights into worlds past and present.
Read more from Catherine H. Zuckert
Leo Strauss and the Problem of Political Philosophy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMachiavelli's Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Truth about Leo Strauss: Political Philosophy and American Democracy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Plato's Philosophers
Related ebooks
Socrates and Aristophanes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Socrates Became Socrates: A Study of Plato’s “Phaedo,” “Parmenides,” and “Symposium” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Socratic Way of Life: Xenophon’s “Memorabilia” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAristotle's Teaching in the Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Concept of Presocratic Philosophy: Its Origin, Development, and Significance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Language of Love: An Interpretation of Plato's Phaedrus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVirtue Is Knowledge: The Moral Foundations of Socratic Political Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sophistry and Political Philosophy: Protagoras' Challenge to Socrates Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEncounters and Reflections: Conversations with Seth Benardete Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dialectic of Essence: A Study of Plato's Metaphysics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Platonic Tradition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Philosophy Became Socratic: A Study of Plato's "Protagoras," "Charmides," and "Republic" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reading Leo Strauss: Politics, Philosophy, Judaism Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Socrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Philosophy 101 by Socrates: An Introduction to Philosophy via Plato's Apology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aristotle Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Neoplatonic Socrates Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMemorabilia Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Being of the Beautiful: Plato's Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persecution and the Art of Writing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Plato to Platonism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Beginnings of Philosophy in Greece Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPolitical Philosophy and the Challenge of Revealed Religion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlato's Sophist: Part II of The Being of the Beautiful Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNatural Right and History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Duties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Politics of Aristotle Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Political Philosophy of Hobbes: Its Basis and Its Genesis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Plato's Statesman: Part III of The Being of the Beautiful Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Politics For You
The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on the U.S.-Israeli War on the Palestinians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalism and Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anarchist Cookbook Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Daily Stoic: A Daily Journal On Meditation, Stoicism, Wisdom and Philosophy to Improve Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Letter to Liberals: Censorship and COVID: An Attack on Science and American Ideals Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The U.S. Constitution with The Declaration of Independence and The Articles of Confederation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Closing of the American Mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Plato's Philosophers
3 ratings0 reviews