Plato’s Theory of the Arts in the Gorgias and in the Republic

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_29_8

Keywords:

Plato, techne, arts, moderation, justice

Abstract

This paper examines Socrates’ theory of the arts in the Gorgias and in the Republic. It shows how that theory changes, as the discussion takes focus first in relation to moderation, then to justice, where it is tied to the idea of a techne of rule, to notions of virtuous work and civic health, and to five levels of ‘art’ represented in the cave. It argues that both Socrates’ vision of a scientific and benevolent political art and Thrasymachus’ sophistic theory of tyrannical rule are undercut in the dialogue, the former by doubts concerning the epistemic closure it seems based on, the latter by the tyrant’s character, which impels him toward self-destructive government.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

ANDERSON, E. (2002). The Ethical Limitations of the Market. Economics and philosophy 6, p. 179-205.

ANNAS, J. (1981). An Introduction to Plato’s Republic. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

ANNAS, J. (1998). Platonic Ethics, Old and New. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

AVERROES (Ibn Rushd). (1976). On the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy. Trans. George Hourani. London, Messrs. Luzac & Co. Available online at http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ir/fasl.

BAUDRILLARD, J. (1994). Simulacra and Simulations. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press.

BURNYEAT, M. (1999). Culture and Society in Plato’s Republic. The Tanner Lectures on Human Values. University of Utah. Available at https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_documents/a-to-z/b/Burnyeat99.pdf.

COOPER, J. (ed.) (1997). Plato. Complete Works. Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing.

GADAMER, H.-G. (1980). Dialogue and Dialectic. Trans P. C. Smith. New Haven, Yale University Press.

GILL, C. (2007). The Good and Mathematics. In: CAIRNS, D.; HERRMANN, F. G.; PENNER, T. (eds.). Pursuing the Good. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, p. 251-274.

GILL, C. (1996). Personality in Greek Epic, Tragedy and Philosophy. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

GILL, C. (1985). Plato and the Education of Character. Archiv fuer die Geschichte der Philosophie 67, p. 1-26.

GOMEZ-LOBO, A. (2001). The Foundations of Socratic Ethics. Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing.

FORDE, S. (1989). The Ambition to Rule. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

HOLLAND, S. (2007). Public Health Ethics. Cambridge, Polity Press.

HOWLAND, J. (2018). Glaucon’s Fate: History, Myth and Character in Plato’s Republic. Philadelphia, Paul Dry Books.

IRWIN, T. (1995). Plato’s Ethics. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

JAMESON, F. (1991). Postmodernism: the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, Duke University Press.

KAMTEKAR, R. (1998). Imperfect Virtue. Ancient Philosophy 18, p. 315-339.

KENNY, A. (1969). Mental Health in Plato’s Republic. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

KLEIN, J. (1968). Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra. Cambridge, MIT Press.

KLEIN, J. (1965). Commentary on Plato’s Meno. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press.

KRAUT, R. (1973). Egoism, Love, and Political Office in Plato. Philosophical Review 82, n. 3, p. 330-344.

LASCH, C. (1979). The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. New York, W. W. Norton & Company.

MARCHANT, E. C.; BOWERSOCK, G. W. (trans.) (1925). Xenophon. Scripta Minora. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.

MCKIM, R. (1988). Shame and Truth in Plato’s Gorgias. In: GRISWOLD, C. (ed.). Platonic Writings/Platonic Readings. London, Routledge.

MILLS, C. W. (2000). The Sociological Imagination. Oxford, Oxford University Press. (40th anniversary reprint)

MOSS, J. (2005). Shame, pleasure and the divided soul. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 29, p. 137-170.

ROOCHNIK, D. (1996). On Art and Wisdom: Plato’s understanding of techne. University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press.

SALKEVER, S. G. (1993). Socrates’ Aspasian oration: The play of philosophy and politics in Plato's Menexenus. American Political Science Review 87, n. 1, p. 133-140.

SCHMID, W. T. (1998). Plato’s Charmides and the Socratic Ideal of Rationality. Albany, State University of New York Press.

SCRUTON, R. (2002). The Decline of Musical Culture. In: NEILL, A.; RIDLEY, A. (ed.). Arguing about art. London, Routledge, p. 119-134.

SELLARS, J. (2003). The Art of Living. Farnham, Ashgate.

SHOREY, P. (ed.) (1930). Plato. Republic I. Cambridge, Harvard University Press.

SIMPSON, L. (1995). Technology, Time, and the Conversations of Modernity. London, Routledge.

STANLEY, J. (2016). How Propaganda Works. Princeton, Princeton University Press.

STANLEY, J. (2018). How Fascism Works: the Politics of Us and Them. New York, Penguin Random House.

STAUFFER, D. (2006). The unity of Plato’s Gorgias: rhetoric, justice, and the philosophic life. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

STRAUSS, L. (1963). On Tyranny. New York, Free Press of Glencoe.

SULLIVAN, A. (2016). American has never been so ripe for tyranny. New York Magazine. May 1. Available at https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/04/america-tyranny-donald-trump.html.

TAYLOR, C. (1971). Interpretation and the Sciences of Man. Review of Metaphysics 25, p. 3-51.

TAYLOR, C. C. W. (2000). Plato’s Totalitarianism. In: FINE, G. (ed.). Plato 2: Essays in Ethics, Politics, Religion, and the Soul. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

TAYLOR, G. (2006). Deadly Vices. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

VLASTOS, G. (1978). Justice and Happiness in the Republic. In: VLASTOS, G. (ed.). Plato II: A Collection of Critical Essays. Garden City, Anchor Books.

VLASTOS, G. (1983) The Socratic Elenchus. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 1, p. 27-58.

WEISS, R. (2016). Philosophers in the “Republic”: Plato’s Two Paradigms. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

WEST, T.; WEST, G. (eds.) (1986). Plato. Charmides. Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing.

XAVIER, M. (2018). Subjectivity under Consumerism: the totalization of the subject as a commodity. Psicologia & Sociedade 28, n. 2, p. 207-216.

Archai 29 (2020 [2])

Downloads

Published

2020-03-28

How to Cite

Schmid, W. T. (2020). Plato’s Theory of the Arts in the Gorgias and in the Republic. Revista Archai, (29), e02908. https://doi.org/10.14195/1984-249X_29_8

Issue

No. 29 (2020): Archai 29 (2020 [2])

Section

Dossier

License

Given the public access policy of the journal, the use of the published texts is free, with the obligation of recognizing the original authorship and the first publication in this journal. The authors of the published contributions are entirely and exclusively responsible for their contents.

1. The authors authorize the publication of the article in this journal.
2. The authors guarantee that the contribution is original, and take full responsibility for its content in case of impugnation by third parties.
3. The authors guarantee that the contribution is not under evaluation in another journal.
4. The authors keep the copyright and convey to the journal the right of first publication, the work being licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License-BY.
5. The authors are allowed and stimulated to publicize and distribute their work on-line after the publication in the journal.
6. The authors of the approved works authorize the journal to distribute their content, after publication, for reproduction in content indexes, virtual libraries and similars.
7. The editors reserve the right to make adjustments to the text and to adequate the article to the editorial rules of the journal.