PHIL 681: Philosophical Figures

Plato: Phaedo, Gorgias, Menexenus, Statesman, Timaeus

Spring 2011

Readings

Young man writing on tablet
In this image from the Perseus collection, a young man is reading and taking notes on his laptop...wax tablet.
This page lists each week's assigned reading, plus supplementary recommended and suggested reading. Recommended readings are those I think will be very helpful; suggested and optional readings are those I think will be helpful or interesting, but not of as high a priority as the recommended ones. Toward the bottom of the page you will find some suggested readings that cover broader topics than we can cover in a single week.

Some of the readings listed here are available online through databases to which the GMU Library subscribes. To access articles on the library's databases: Go to the GMU library page. Click "Research Databases" and then click on the first letter of your selected database ('J' for JSTOR, 'P' for Project Muse, etc.). If you are off-campus or if you are not using the GMU dialup service, you will have to enter your email address and password to access these journal databases.

For JSTOR: From the page of 'J' listings, click on JSTOR. Then click on "Search," and from the "Search" page, click on "Advanced Search." Enter the author's name and the journal title in the appropriate search boxes. For prolific authors, it may be helpful to enter the date or a bit of the article title as well. Alternate method: From the main JSTOR page, click on "Browse" and scroll down until you find the title of the journal you're looking for, then click on that title. This will bring you to a page listing all issues of the journal.

Check through the whole page at least once per week. As I come across additional materials that might be of interest concerning each topic I will add them.

GMU e-reserves

GMU Libraries e-journal finder (for when you're not sure which database holds an electronic version of an article)

Reading due January 31

1. Phaedo 57a - 96a

2. P.C. Smith, "Apodeiknusthai, Dialegesthai, Peithein: A Reconstruction of Plato's Methods of Argumentation in the Phaedo," pp. 95-107 in Gonzalez, ed., The Third Way. This chapter has been put on e-reserve; in case e-reserves are not ready, the book has been put on print reserve in the JC Library.

3. At least one of the following:
(a) F.J. Gonzalez, "Introduction: A Short History of Platonic Interpretation and the 'Third Way,'" pp. 1-22 in Gonzalez, ed., The Third Way. This chapter has been put on e-reserve; in case e-reserves are not ready, the book has been put on print reserve in the JC Library.
(b) G.A. Press, "The Logic of Attributing Characters' Views to Plato," pp. 27-38 in Press, ed., Who Speaks for Plato?  This chapter has been put on e-reserve; in case e-reserves are not ready, the book has been put on print reserve in the JC Library.
(c) G.A. Press, "The State of the Question in the Study of Plato," The Southern Journal of Philosophy 34 (1996): 507-532. Available in print in Fenwick Library.
(d) J.J. Mulhern, "Interpreting the Platonic Dialogues: What Can One Say?" pp. 221-234 in Press, ed., Who Speaks for Plato? This chapter has been put on e-reserve; in case e-reserves are not ready, the book has been put on print reserve in the JC Library.

4. At least one of the following:
(a) Lloyd Gerson, "Plato Absconditus," pp. 201-210 in Press, ed., Who Speaks for Plato? This chapter has been put on e-reserve; in case e-reserves are not ready, the book has been put on print reserve in the JC Library.
(b) Richard Kraut, "Introduction to the Study of Plato," pp. 1-50 in Kraut, ed., The Cambridge Compaion to Plato. This chapter has been put on e-reserve; in case e-reserves are not ready, the book has been put on print reserve in the JC Library.

1. Jacob Howland, "Re-Reading Plato: The Problem of Platonic Chronology." Phoenix. 45.3  (1991): 189-214. Available online via JSTOR.

2. Carol Poster, " The Idea(s) of Order of Platonic Dialogues and Their Hermeneutic Consequences." Phoenix 52.3/4  (1998): 282-298. Available online via JSTOR.

3. Harold Tarrant, "Where Plato Speaks: Reflections on an Ancient Debate," pp. 67-80 in Press, ed., Who Speaks for Plato? This chapter has been put on e-reserve; in case e-reserves are not ready, the book has been put on print reserve in the JC Library.

4. Charles Griswold, "E Pluribus Unum? On the Platonic 'Corpus.'" Ancient Philosophy 19 (1999): 361-397. In Periodicals Area of Fenwick.



due February 7

  • Required
1. Phaedo 96b - end; Gorgias 447a - 463b

2. David Roochnik, "Socrates' Rhetorical Attack on Rhetoric," pp. 81-94 in Gonzalez, ed., The Third Way. This chapter has been put on e-reserve; in case e-reserves are not ready, the book has been put on print reserve in the JC Library.

3. J. Crooks, "Socrates' Last Words: Another Look at an Ancient Riddle." The Classical Quarterly n.s 48.1 (1998): 117-125. Available online via JSTOR.
  • Recommended (required, if you don't remember, or don't yet know, what a technē is)
Aristotle, Metaphysics Book A (Book One), Chapters 1 and 2
On-line notes on Metaphysics Book A, Chapters 1 and 2 

  • Also recommended
1. David Roochnik, "Is Rhetoric an Art?" Rhetorica 12.2 (1994): 127-154. Available online via JSTOR.

2. Paul Stern, "Antifoundationalism and Plato's Phaedo." The Review of Politics 51.2 (1989): 190-217.

3. Glenn Most, "'A Cock for Asclepius'." The Classical Quarterly n.s. 43.1 (1993): 96-111.
  • Optional
1. Michael Gagarin, "Did the Sophists Aim to Persuade?" Rhetorica 19.3 (2001): 275-291. Available online via JSTOR.

2. Laurel Madison, "Have We Been Careless with Socrates' Last Words?: A Rereading of the Phaedo." Journal of the History of Philosophy 40.4 (2002): 421-436. Available online via ProQuest Research Library.

due February 14

  • Required
1. Gorgias 463b - 488b

2. David Roochnik, "Counting on Number: Plato on the Goodness of Arithmos." American Journal of Philology 115.4 (1994): 543-563. Available online via JSTOR.
  • Recommended (required, if you don't remember, or don't yet know, what a technē is)
Aristotle, Metaphysics Book A (Book One), Chapters 1 and 2
On-line notes on Metaphysics Book A, Chapters 1 and 2 

David Roochnik, "Is Rhetoric an Art?" Rhetorica 12.2 (1994): 127-154. Available online via JSTOR.
  • Also recommended
Michael Gagarin, "Did the Sophists Aim to Persuade?" Rhetorica 19.3 (2001): 275-291. Available online via JSTOR.


due February 21

  • Required
1. Gorgias 488b - 509c

2. Kenneth C. Blanchard, Jr., "The Enemies of Socrates: Piety and Sophism in the Socratic Drama." The Review of Politics 62.3  (2000):  421-449. Available online via JSTOR.
  • Recommended
1. Isocrates, "Against the Sophists." Available via Perseus. Isocrates was roughly contemporary with Plato. (Please note that the footnotes in the Perseus edition were written by the text editor, Norlin, and not by Isocrates.)

2. James L. Wiser, "Philosophy as Political Action: A Reading of the Gorgias." American Journal of Political Science 19.2  1975): 313-322. Available online via JSTOR and Academic Search Complete.


due February 28

  • Required
1. Gorgias 509c - end

2. Dan Avnon, "'Know Thyself': Socratic Companionship and Political Community." Political Theory 23.2 (1995): 304-329. Available online via JSTOR.

3. Alessandra Fussi, "The Myth of the Last Judgment in the Gorgias." Review of Metaphysics 54.3 (2001): 529-552. Available online via JSTOR and ProQuest Research Library.


due March 7

  • Required
1. Menexenus (all)

2. Stephen Salkever, "Socrates' Aspasian Oration: The Play of Philosophy and Politics in Plato's Menexenus." The American Political Science Review 87.1 (1993): 133-143.

2. Susan D. Collins and Devin Stauffer, "The Challenge of Plato's Menexenus." The Review of Politics 61.1 (1999): 85-115.
  • Recommended
1. S. Sara Monoson, ""Remembering Pericles: The Political and Theoretical Import of Plato's Menexenus." Political Theory 26.4 (1998): 489-513.
  • Optional
1. Madeleine Henry, Prisoner of History: Aspasia of Miletus and her Biographical Tradition. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Available through the GMU Library Catalog as an electronic book (can be read online).

2. Dennis Schmidt, "Who Counts? On Democracy, Power, and the Incalculable." Research in Phenomenology 38.2 (2008): 228-243.

3. David A Frank and Mark Lawrence McPhail, "Barack Obama's Address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention: Trauma, Compromise, Consilience, and the (Im)possibility of Racial Reconciliation." Rhetoric & Public Affairs 8.4 (2005): 571-593.

due March 21

  • Required
1. Statesman 257a - 275d

2. Either or both of the following:
        (a) Mitchell Miller, Introduction and Chapter I of The Philosopher in Plato's Statesman (on print reserve at the JC Library);
        (b) J.P. Merrill, "The Organization of Plato's Statesman and the Statesman's Rule as a Herdsman." Phoenix 57.1-2 (2003): 35-56.
  • Recommended
1. Michael Kolchin, "Plato's Eleatic and Athenian Sciences of Politics." The Review of Politics 61.1 (1999): 57-84

  • Optional
1. P. Vidal-Naquet, "Plato's Myth of the Statesman, the Ambiguities of the Golden Age and of History." Journal of Hellenic Studies 98 (1978): 132-141.


due March 28

  • Required
1. Statesman 275d - 293a

2. Gerald Mara, "Constitutions, Virtue, and Philosophy in Plato's Statesman and Republic." Polity 13 (1981): 355-382.
  • Recommended
1. Stanley Rosen, "Plato's Myth of the Reversed Cosmos." Review of Metaphysics 33.1 (1979): 59-85.
  • Optional
TBA

due April 4

  • Required
1. Statesman 293a - end

2. Paul Stern, "The Rule of Wisdom and the Rule of Law in Plato's Statesman." American Political Science Review 91.2 (1997): 264-276.

3. Ann Michelini, "The Search for the King: Reflexive Irony in Plato's Politicus." Classical Antiquity 19.1 (2000): 180-204.
  • Recommended
1. L.J. Biskowski, "Reason in Politics: Arendt and Gadamer on the Role of the Eide." Polity 31.2 (1998): 217-244.
  • Optional
1. Simona Forti, "The Biopolitics of Souls: Racism, Nazism, and Plato." Political Theory 34.1 (2006): 9-32.

due April 11

  • Required
1. Timaeus 17a - 35b

2. Jacob Howland, "Partisanship and the Work of Philosophy in Plato's Timaeus." The Review of Politics 69.1 (2007): 1-27.
  • Recommended
1. Laurence Lampert and Christopher Planeaux, "Who's Who in Plato's Timaeus-Critias and Why." Review of Metaphysics 52.1  (1998): 87-125.

2. Sarah Broadie, Anthony Kenny, "The Creation of the World." Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 78  (2004): 65-79 and 81-92 (the first part is an article by Broadie and the second is Kenny's response).
  • Optional
1. Heinz-Günther Nesselrath, "'Where the Lord of the Sea Grants Passage to Sailors through the Deep-Blue Mere No More': The Greeks and the Western Seas." Greece and Rome 52.2 (2005): 153-171.

2. Pierre Vidal-Naquet, The Atlantis Story (tr. J. Lloyd). Exeter, UK: University of Exeter Press, 2007. On print reserve (or on its way to print reserve) at the JC Library.

2a. See also Nesselrath's extensive review of Vidal-Naquet's book in Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

3. If you read German, try Nesselrath's Platon und die Erfindung von Atlantis. (You'd have to order it via Interlibrary Loan, as GMU does not have it.) Thomas Rosenmeyer's review in Bryn Mawr Classical Review gives you some of its flavor.



due April 18

  • Required
1. Timaeus 35b - 53c

2. Glenn R. Morrow, "Necessity and Persuasion in Plato's Timaeus." Philosophical Review 59.2  (1950): 147-163.

3. Zina Giannopoulou, "Derrida's Khôra, or Unnaming the Timaean Receptacle," pp. 165-178 in R. D. Mohr and B. Sattler, eds., One Book: The Whole Universe. This article is on e-reserve.
  • Recommended
1. D.W. Graham, "A Testimony of Anaximenes in Plato." Classical Quarterly, New Series  53.2  (2003): 327-337.

2. Anthony Leggett, "Plato's Timaeus: Some Resonances in Modern Physics and Cosmology," pp. 31-36 in R.D. Mohr and B. Sattler, eds., One Book: The Whole Universe. On e-reserve.
  • Optional
1. G. Naddaf, review of J. Sallis, Chorology, Phoenix 56.1-2 (2002): 156-158.

due April 25

  • Required
1. Timaeus 53c - 72e

2. Kathryn Morgan, "Narrative Orders in the Timaeus and Critias," pp. 267-285 in R.D. Mohr and B. Sattler, eds., One Book: The Whole Universe. On e-reserve.
  • Recommended
Any of the previously recommended Timaeus readings

due May 2

  • Required
1. Timaeus 72e - end

2. Catherine Zuckert, "Socrates and Timaeus: Two Platonic Paradigms of Philosophy," Epoché 15.2 (2011): 331-360. On e-reserve.
  • Recommended
1. Any of the previously recommended Timaeus readings
  • Optional
TBA


General background, works of broader scope, and further reading on specific dialogues


1. Richard Kraut, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Plato. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992. On reserve at the JC Library.

2. Luc Brisson and Walter Meyerstein, Inventing the Universe. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1995. On reserve at the JC Library.

3. Scott Consigny, Gorgias: Sophist and Artist. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 2001. On reserve at the JC Library.

4. Francisco Gonzalez, ed., The Third Way: New Directions in Platonic Studies. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1995. On reserve at the JC Library.

5. James King, "Elenchus, Self-Blame, and the Socratic Paradox." Review of Metaphysics 41.1 (1987): 105-126. Available online via JSTOR.

6. Debra Nails, The People of Plato. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2002. On reserve at the JC Library.

7. Gerald Press, ed., Plato's Dialogues: New Studies and Interpretations. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1993.

8. Gerald Press, ed., Who Speaks for Plato? Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000. On reserve at the JC Library.

9. Mitchell Miller, The Philosopher in Plato's Statesman. Las Vegas, NV: Parmenides Publishing, 2004. On reserve at the JC Library.

10. David Bostock, Plato's Phaedo. Oxford, UK and New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1986. On reserve at the JC Library.

11. Kenneth Dorter, Plato's Phaedo: an Interpretation. Toronto, ON and Buffalo, NY: University of Toronto Press, 1982. On reserve at the JC Library.

12. Richard McKirahan, Philosophy Before Socrates. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 1994. On reserve at the JC Library.

13. Christoph Riedweg, Pythagoras. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005. On reserve at the JC Library.

14. R.D. Mohr and B. Sattler, eds., One Book: The Whole Universe: Plato's Timaeus Today. Las Vegas, NV: Parmenides Publishing, 2010.

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