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K. Crotty, The philosopher's song: the poets' influence on Plato

K. Crotty, The philosopher's song: the poets' influence on Plato

Publié le par Frédérique Fleck

Kevin Crotty, The philosopher's song: the poets' influence on Plato. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, coll. "Greek studies: interdisciplinary approaches",  2009. xxii, 247 p.

  • $70.00.
  • ISBN 9780739144060.

Présentation de l'éditeur:

The Philosopher's Song is afull-length treatment of Plato and the dynamic course of hisphilosophical thought, regarded from a distinctly poetic point of view.Kevin Crotty demonstrates how Plato's invention of philosophy needs tobe situated within the context of a society where poets were culturalauthorities, whose teachings emphasized such tragic themes as theinstability of things and the indeterminacy of moral terms. Theinterest of Plato's philosophy lies to a great extent in the compellinginterest of what he sought to repress-the poetic and political heritageof a world tragically conceived.
Plato's attacks on the poetsare notorious. Despite his apparently frank hostility, however, hisrelation to the poets was exceedingly complex, argues Crotty. Even thebanishment of the poets in the Republic turns out to be, more deeply, arecruitment of mimetic poetry for Plato's metaphysics. Once endowedwith a metaphysical significance, however, the poets posed a seriouschallenge to Platonic idealism, and spurred Plato to reviseconsiderably his metaphysical scheme. Crotty ultimately concludes thatthe views of politics and ethics in Plato's later works return in manyways to the insights of the poets.
Kevin Crotty is professor of classics at Washington and Lee University.

Table des matières:

Part One
  • Chapter 1. Achilles' Insight: Poetic and Moral Consciousness in Homer
  • Chapter 2. The Poetics of Justice: Aeschylus' Oresteia and Plato's Republic


Part Two

  • Chapter 3. Socrates' Intellectual Crisis: The Phaedo
  • Chapter 4. The Greatest Charge Against Mimetic Poetry


Part Three

  • Chapter 5. The Metaphysics of Fallibility: The Sophist
  • Chapter 6. The Statesman: The Tragedy of Politics and the Shape of Plato's Thought