Hearing, Sound, and the Auditory in Ancient Greece

by Jill Gordon (Editor), Sara Brill (Contribution by), S. Montgomery Ewegen (Contribution by), Drew A. Hyland (Contribution by), Michael Naas (Contribution by)

Overview

Hearing, Sound, and the Auditory in Ancient Greece represents the first wide-ranging philosophical study of the role of sound and hearing in the ancient Greek world. Because our modern western culture is a particularly visual one, we can overlook the significance of the auditory which was so central to the Greeks. The fifteen chapters of this edited volume explore "hearing" as being philosophically significant across numerous texts and figures in ancient Greek philosophy.

Through close analysis of the philosophy of such figures as Homer, Heraclitus, Pythagoreans, Sophocles, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hearing, Sound, and Auditory in Ancient Greece presents new and unique research from philosophers and classicists that aims to redirect us to the ways in which sound, hearing, listening, voice, and even silence shaped and reflected the worldview of ancient Greece.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253062826
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	09/06/2022
Series:	Studies in Continental Thought
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jill Gordon is Professor of Philosophy and Class of 1940/NEH Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Colby College. She is the author of Turning Toward Philosophy: Literary Device and Dramatic Structure in Plato's Dialogues and Plato's Erotic World: From Cosmic Origins to Human Death.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Editor's Introduction, by Jill Gordon
Part I: Listening to the Logoi
1. Wakeful Living, Wakeful Listening in Heraclitus, by Drew A. Hyland
2. Sound, Water, and the Unity of Life in Empedocles, by Michael M. Shaw
3. Indoor Voices: Adriana Cavarero and Jacques Derrida on the Devocalization of Logos in Plato, by Michael Naas
4. Hearing, Touch, and Practical Intelligence in Aristotle's Philosophy, by Eve Rabinoff
5. Listening to the "Egg", by Sean Alexander Gurd
Part II: Sound Education
6. Like Those Who Are Untested: Heraclitus' Logos as Tuning Instrument for Psuchê, by Jessica E. Decker
7. Philosophical Listening in Plato's Lysis, by Shane M. Ewegen
8. Sound and the Soul in Plato, by Ryan T. Drake
Part III: Sound Politics
9. Listening to the Seventh Letter, by Jill Gordon
10. Observations on Listening in Aristotle's Practical Philosophy, by I-Kai Jeng
11. Mis-aulogy: Aristotle on the Politics of Sound, by Sara Brill
Part IV: Alogos, Embodiment, and Silence
12. The Sound of Pain in Sophocles' Philoctetes, by Rebecca Goldner
13. Socratic Death Rattles: Pythagorean Hearing and Listening in Plato's Phaedo, by Kris McLain and Anne-Marie Schultz
14. Socrates' Body and the Voice of Philosophy, by James Barrett
15. Works of Silence, by Jeremy Bell
Index

What People are Saying About This

Robert Metcalf

The essays in Hearing, Sound, and the Auditory in Ancient Greece share an attention to hearing as something philosophically significant across numerous texts and figures in ancient Greek philosophy—from Heraclitus and other Presocratics to Plato and Aristotle and later antiquity. This thematic focus allows for the authors to address the connection to a range of phenomena of interest to philosophers: logos, sense-perception, silence, crowd noise, the experience of pain. The collection as a whole makes for fascinating reading, and will be certain to inspire future work in philosophy.

Eric Sanday

Hearing, Sound, and the Auditory in Ancient Greece attunes readers of ancient philosophy to themes of noise, sound, speech and their interrelation, which certainly are the sort of things that we might overlook if it were not for the care and attention provided by the essays in this volume.

Editorial Reviews

"Hearing, Sound, and the Auditory in Ancient Greece attunes readers of ancient philosophy to themes of noise, sound, speech and their interrelation, which certainly are the sort of things that we might overlook if it were not for the care and attention provided by the essays in this volume."—Eric Sanday, University of Kentucky

"The essays in Hearing, Sound, and the Auditory in Ancient Greece share an attention to hearing as something philosophically significant across numerous texts and figures in ancient Greek philosophy—from Heraclitus and other Presocratics to Plato and Aristotle and later antiquity. This thematic focus allows for the authors to address the connection to a range of phenomena of interest to philosophers: logos, sense-perception, silence, crowd noise, the experience of pain. The collection as a whole makes for fascinating reading, and will be certain to inspire future work in philosophy."—Robert Metcalf, University of Colorado Denver

From the Publisher