Plato's Four Muses: The Phaedrus and the Poetics of Philosophy - Brossura

Capra, Andrea

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0674417224 ISBN 13: 9780674417229

Casa editrice: Harvard Univ Center for Hellenic, 2014

Riassunto

Plato’s Four Muses reconstructs Plato’s authorial self-portrait through a fresh reading of thePhaedrus, with an Introduction and Conclusion that contextualize the construction more broadly. ThePhaedrus, it is argued, is Plato’s most self-referential dialogue, and Plato’s reference to four Muses inPhaedrus 259c–d is read as a hint at the “ingredients” of philosophical discourse, which turns out to be a form of provocatively old-fashionedmousikê.

Andrea Capra maintains that Socrates’s conversion to “demotic”—as opposed to metaphorical—music in thePhaedo closely parallels the Phaedrus and is apologetic in character, since Socrates was held responsible for dismissing traditionalmousikê. This parallelism reveals three surprising features that define Plato’s works: first, a measure of anti-intellectualism (Plato counters the rationalistic excesses of other forms of discourse, thus distinguishing it from both prose and poetry); second, a new beginning for philosophy (Plato conceptualizes the birth of Socratic dialogue in, and against, the Pythagorean tradition, with an emphasis on the new role of writing); and finally, a self-consciously ambivalent attitude with respect to the social function of the dialogues, which are conceived both as a kind of “resistance literature” and as a preliminary move toward the new poetry of the Kallipolis.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Harvard Univ Center for Hellenic
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0674417224
• ISBN 13: 9780674417229
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 234