BOOK

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

Capra, Andrea, 1971- author

2014

Overview

Plato's Four Muses reconstructs Plato's authorial self-portrait through a fresh reading of the Phhaedrus, with an Introduction and Conclusion that contextualize the construction more broadly. The reference to four Muses in the myth of the cicadas is read as a hint of the \"ingredients\" of philosophical discourse, which Plato sets against the Greek tradition of poetic initiations and conceptualizes as a form of provocatively old-fasioned 'mousikهe'.The book unravels three surprising features that define Plato's works. First, there is a measure of anti-intellectualism: Plato counters the rationalistic excesses of other forms of discourse, thus distinguishing his own words from both prose and poetry; second, Plato envisages a new beginning for philosophy: he conceptualizes the birth of Socratic dialogue in, and against, the Pythagorean tradition, with an emphasis on the new role of writing and on the cult of Socrates in the Academy; finally, a self-consciously ambivalent attitude emerges with respect to the social function of the dialogues. Plato's works are conceived both as a kind of \"resistance literature\" and as a preliminary move towards the new poetry of the Kallipolis.

• Publisher: Center for Hellenic Studies
• Subject: Plato. / Poetics History To 1500.
• ISBN: 9780674417229, 0674417224

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Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
B395.C34 2014	1	BOOK	GENERAL