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Chapter 3 - Against System

The Historical Plato in the Mid-Victorian Era

from Part I - Approaches to the Corpus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2023

Malcolm Schofield
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

The two great Victorian Platonists – George Grote and Benjamin Jowett – are often perceived as championing diametrically opposed perspectives on Plato: utilitarian vs. idealist. This chapter argues that no less important is what they had in common: an ‘atomist’ hermeneutics, in fierce reaction against attempts to make a system out of the dialogues; and a combination of scrupulous attention to the texts as historical documents with insistence that giving Plato his place in the history of philosophy and ‘in the scale of human improvement’ was no less the historian’s obligation. Finally, both men were active in the public sphere, looking for similar ‘modern applications’ of what was best in Plato’s political thought, particularly in the sphere of education.

Type
Chapter
Information
How Plato Writes
Perspectives and Problems
, pp. 52 - 70
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Against System
  • Malcolm Schofield, University of Cambridge
  • Book: How Plato Writes
  • Online publication: 27 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108672603.005
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  • Against System
  • Malcolm Schofield, University of Cambridge
  • Book: How Plato Writes
  • Online publication: 27 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108672603.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Against System
  • Malcolm Schofield, University of Cambridge
  • Book: How Plato Writes
  • Online publication: 27 July 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108672603.005
Available formats
×