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3 results

Plato's Phaedo
  • Forms, Death, and the Philosophical Life
  • David Ebrey
  • Published online: 02 February 2023
  • Print publication: 09 February 2023
  • Plato's Phaedo is a literary gem that develops many of his most famous ideas. David Ebrey's careful reinterpretation argues that the many debates about the dialogue cannot be resolved so long as we consider its passages in relative isolation from one another, separated from their intellectual background. His book shows how Plato responds to his literary, religious, scientific, and philosophical context, and argues that we can only understand the dialogue's central ideas and arguments in light of its overall structure. This approach yields new interpretations of the dialogue's key ideas, including the nature and existence of 'Platonic' forms, the existence of the soul after death, the method of hypothesis, and the contemplative ethical ideal. Moreover, this comprehensive approach shows how the characters play an integral role in the Phaedo's development and how its literary structure complements Socrates' views while making its own distinctive contribution to the dialogue's drama and ideas.

  • Chapter 5 - Imitation and Self-Examination

  • from Part I - Ethics across the Late-antique and Byzantine Period
  • Edited by Sophia Xenophontos, University of Glasgow, Anna Marmodoro, University of Oxford
  • Book: The Reception of Greek Ethics in Late Antiquity and Byzantium
  • Published online: 15 June 2021
  • Print publication: 24 June 2021, pp 83-97

  • Summary

    This essay explores the views of Neoplatonic commentators (e.g. Proclus and the anonymous Prolegomena to Platonic Philosophy) on the relation between Plato’s ethical philosophy and the literary format of the Platonic dialogue. It focuses in particular on the role of visualisation in the process of moral education. The Neoplatonists praise Plato’s dialogues for their 'vividness' (enargeia). They hold that the vivid depiction of good characters (e.g. Socrates) promotes imitation of similar manners, whereas the equally vivid depiction of bad characters (e.g. the ambitious Alcibiades) invites critical self-examination. The Neoplatonists develop their view in part in response to the Stoics, who had argued that moral education should be restricted to the teaching of bare moral rules. The difference between the Stoic and Platonic view on the importance of literature in moral education can be explained from their differing views on the constitution of the human soul. Whereas (most) Stoics hold that the entire soul is rational, the Platonic tradition acknowledges the non-rational aspect of the human soul and holds that moral education should address both the rational and non-rational. Modern psychological research corroborates the Platonic position on the human soul and the need for (literary) examples in moral education.

  • 1 - Socrates in the Republic

  • Edited by Mark L. McPherran, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
  • Book: Plato's 'Republic'
  • Published online: 04 February 2011
  • Print publication: 25 November 2010, pp 11-31

  • Summary

    Not only is Socrates one of the fictional characters in the Republic, he is also its fictional voice. To the modern narratologist, Socrates is the Republic's "internal narrator". This chapter begins with a description of his private thoughts. It also discusses three other Platonic dialogues, internally narrated by Socrates: the Lysis, the Charmides, and the Lovers. Unexpected interventions are plentiful in the Republic; and they are sometimes connected with a private thought of Socrates' in a way that has no parallel in the other three dialogues for which he serves as internal narrator. Socrates invites Glaucon to join him as he rousts justice from a shadowy thicket; shouts as he comes upon its tracks; berates himself for not seeing it sooner. Socrates becomes less authoritative in the sense that he is no longer concealing his moves from his interlocutors.