Agora, Academy, and the Conduct of Philosophy

by Debra Nails

Overview

Agora, Academy, and the Conduct of Philosophy offers extremely careful and detailed criticisms of some of the most important assumptions scholars have brought to bear in beginning the process of (Platonic) interpretation. It goes on to offer a new way to group the dialogues, based on important facts in the lives and philosophical practices of Socrates - the main speaker in most of Plato's dialogues - and of Plato himself. Both sides of Debra Nails's arguments deserve close attention: the negative side, which exposes a great deal of diversity in a field that often claims to have achieved a consensus; and the positive side, which insists that we must attend to what we know of these philosophers' lives and practices, if we are to make a serious attempt to understand why Plato wrote the way he did, and why his writings seem to depict different philosophies and even different approaches to philosophizing.
From the Preface by Nicholas D. Smith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789401040686
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	10/23/2012
Series:	Philosophical Studies Series , #63
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1995
Pages:	267
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.02(d)

Table of Contents

I: A Metaphilosophical Task.- 1: Introduction.- 2: The Socratic Problem.- 3: The Platonic Question.- II: The Developmental Hypothesis.- 4: The Early Middle Late Consensus: How Deep? How Broad?.- 5: The Content of the Dialogues.- 6: Stylometric Investigations.- 7: Thesleff’s Philological Undermining of Developmentalism.- III: Havelock’s Hypothesis: Plato Overturns The Oral Tradition.- 8: Socrates Oralist, Plato Textualist.- 9: Literacy in Fifth Century Athens.- 10: The Anthropological Evidence and Where It Falls.- IV: The Conduct of Philosophy.- 11: Socrates in the Agora.- 12: Plato in the Academy.- Index of Passages.- General Index.

Editorial Reviews

‘ Nails offers us a challenging and useful book.'
Anciet Philosophy 19 (1999)

From the Publisher

Nails (Mary Washington College) creates new pathways toward Platonic philosophical interpretation by challenging the field's consensus and augmenting her arguments with an insistence on historical attention. Her criticism groups the dialogues based on facts in the lives and philosophical practices of Socrates, revealing new diversity and explaining why Plato's writing depicts different philosophies and even different approaches to philosophizing. This "metaphilosophical task" is achieved by Nails' thorough research and compelling writing style. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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