How philosophy became socratic
Subtitle: a study of Plato's Protagoras, Charmides, and Republic
By: Laurence Lampert.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Chicago; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 441
ISBN-13: 9780226470962
Subjects: Socrates; Socrates -- Political and social views; Plato; Plato; Plato; Philosophy, Ancient -- History; Philosophy, Ancient -- Political aspects; Political science -- Philosophy
Description: Plato's dialogues show Socrates at different ages, beginning when he was about nineteen and already deeply immersed in philosophy and ending with his execution five decades later. By presenting his model philosopher across a fifty-year span of his life, Plato leads his readers to wonder: does that time period correspond to the development of Socrates' thought? In this magisterial investigation of the evolution of Socrates' philosophy, Laurence Lampert answers in the affirmative. The chronological route that Plato maps for us, Lampert argues, reveals the enduring record of philosophy as it took the form that came to dominate the life of the mind in the West. The reader accompanies Socrates as he breaks with the century-old tradition of philosophy, turns to his own path, steadily enters into a deeper understanding of nature and human nature, and discovers the successful way to transmit his wisdom to the wider world. Focusing on the final and most prominent step in that process and offering detailed textual analysis of Plato's Protagoras, Charmides, and Republic, How Philosophy Became Socratic charts Socrates' gradual discovery of a proper politics to shelter and advance philosophy. -- Publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Philosophy in a time of splendor: Socrates in Periclean Athens before the war, c. 433; title: First words; title: Socrates' intentions; title: The spectacle of Charmides' entrance; title: Critias scripts a play but Socrates takes it over; title: Stripping Charmides' soul; title: What Critias took from Socrates and what that riddler had in mind; title: Should each of the beings become clearly apparent just as it is?; title: The final definition of sôphrosunê, Socrates' definition; title: The possibility of Socrates' sôphrosunê; title: The benefit of Socrates' sôphrosunê; title: Socrates judges the inquiry; title: Last words; title: Who might the auditor of Plato's Charmides be?; title: Note on the dramatic date of Charmides; title: The Republic: the birth of Platonism; title: Socrates' great politics; title: The world to which Socrates goes down; title: First words; title: The compelled and the voluntary; title: Learning from Cephalus; title: Polemarchus and Socratic justice; title: Gentling Thrasymachus; title: The state of the young in Athens; title: Socrates' new beginning; title: New gods; title: New philosophers; title: New justice in a new soul; title: Compulsion and another beginning; title: The center of the Republic: the philosopher ruler; title: Glaucon, ally of the philosopher's rule; title: Platonism: philosophy's political defense and introduction to philosophy; title: Public speakers for philosophy; title: Images of the greatest study: sun, line, cave; title: The last act of the returned Odysseus; title: Love and reverence for Homer; title: Homer's deed; title: Homer's children; title: Rewards and prizes for Socrates' children; title: Replacing Homer's Hades; title: Last words; title: Note on the dramatic date of the Republic.