Genres in Dialogue: Plato and the Construct of Philosophy

by Andrea Wilson Nightingale

Overview

In this very original study, the author investigates how Plato "invented" the discipline of philosophy. In order to define and legitimize philosophy, Dr. Nightingale maintains, Plato had to match it against genres of discourse that had authority and currency in democratic Athens. By incorporating traditional genres of poetry and rhetoric into his dialogues, Plato marks the boundaries of philosophy as a discursive and as a social practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521482646
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/14/1995
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.46(w) x 9.37(h) x 1.06(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; Abbreviations and texts; Introduction; 1. Plato, Isocrates and the property of philosophy; 2. Use and abuse of Athenian tragedy; 3. Eulogy, irony, parody; 4. Alien and authentic discourse; 5. Philosophy and comedy; Conclusion; Bibliography; General index; Index of passages from Plato.

Editorial Reviews

"This fascinating study sheds new light on the old puzzle: despite his notorious attack on poetry, Plato was a literary genius. Nightingale does not simply explore literary aspects of Plato's writings, however; she articulates deep structural and thematic relations between the dialogues and the alien literary genres of tragedy, lyric, and comedy." Choice

"This fascinating study sheds new light on the old puzzle: despite his notorious attack on poetry, Plato was a literary genius. Nightingale does not simply explore literary aspects of Plato's writings, however; she articulates deep structural and thematic relations between the dialogues and the alien literary genres of tragedy, lyric, and comedy....Strongly recommended for college and university libraries." Choice

"Andrea Nightingale's fine book on Plato and the 'construct' of philosophy is everywhere responsive to the contingency of philosophical discourse....this work thus provides essential philological insights into the distinctions between philosophy and its rival forms of discourse (including poetry and rhetoric) at a moment when those boundaries first came to be demarcated in an explicit and systematic way." Philosophy of Literature

"The merits of Nightingale's book are considerable. It deals with many questions of language and discourse that are dear to postmodernists, but it treats them with clarity which an analytic philosopher will appreciate." Joseph A. Novak, Review of Metaphysics

From the Publisher