Overview

Full Product Details

9781498550017

Table of Contents

Reviews

Undergraduates frequently encounter Plato through the Apology. But how does one move from impressions of this exceptional dialogue to philosophical and historical scholarship? This fine anthology, from a 2015 conference in Bergen, Norway, supplies this pedagogical need. The 11 essays survey cruxes of the dialogue that Gro Rorstadbotten (in his essay Socrates's Telling of the Truth ) calls the point zero, where Plato's Socrates meets his historical counterpart. Most essays problematize Socrates himself. Arlene Saxonhouse sees tensions between democracy and shameless speech (parrhesia). Other contributors link Socrates's rhetoric to history. Rorstadbotten reviews the amnesty law that prohibited litigious reference to the atrocities of the oligarchy. Hallvard Fossheim faults Socrates regarding Aristotle's account of virtue--Socrates's cleverness, poverty, and lack of straightforward political engagement compromise practical wisdom. The eminent Paul Woodruff argues that Socrates's exhortation to Athens is strange unless understood as a call to jurors to examine themselves and live in accordance with human limitations. Such insights supplement those in previous works on either the broader philosophy of Socrates (e.g., Thomas Brickhouse and Nicholas Smith's The Philosophy of Socrates, CH, Jul'00, 37-6200) or on his rhetoric (I. F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates, CH, Nov'88, 26-1493). Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.--CHOICE

Undergraduates frequently encounter Plato through the Apology. But how does one move from impressions of this exceptional dialogue to philosophical and historical scholarship? This fine anthology, from a 2015 conference in Bergen, Norway, supplies this pedagogical need. The 11 essays survey cruxes of the dialogue that Gro Rorstadbotten (in his essay Socrates's Telling of the Truth ) calls the point zero, where Plato's Socrates meets his historical counterpart. Most essays problematize Socrates himself. Arlene Saxonhouse sees tensions between democracy and shameless speech (parrhesia). Other contributors link Socrates's rhetoric to history. Rorstadbotten reviews the amnesty law that prohibited litigious reference to the atrocities of the oligarchy. Hallvard Fossheim faults Socrates regarding Aristotle's account of virtue-Socrates's cleverness, poverty, and lack of straightforward political engagement compromise practical wisdom. The eminent Paul Woodruff argues that Socrates's exhortation to Athens is strange unless understood as a call to jurors to examine themselves and live in accordance with human limitations. Such insights supplement those in previous works on either the broader philosophy of Socrates (e.g., Thomas Brickhouse and Nicholas Smith's The Philosophy of Socrates, CH, Jul'00, 37-6200) or on his rhetoric (I. F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates, CH, Nov'88, 26-1493). Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *

Author Information

Vivil Valvik Haraldsen is lecturer at the University of Bergen. Olof Pettersson is research fellow at Uppsala University. Oda E. W. Tvedt researches history of philosophy at Uppsala University.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available