Socrates And The Political Community

Author : Mary P. Nichols
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 1987-07-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781438414676

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Socrates and the Political Community by Mary P. Nichols Pdf

This book takes a fresh look at Socrates as he appeared to three ancient writers: Aristophanes, who attacked him for his theoretical studies; Plato, who immortalized him in his dialogues; and Aristotle, who criticized his political views. It addresses the questions of the interrelation of politics and philosophy by looking at Aristophanes' Clouds, Plato's Republic, and Book II of Aristotle's Politics—three sides of a debate on the value of Socrates' philosophic life. Mary Nichols first discusses the relation between Aristophanes and Plato, showing that the city as Socrates' place of activity in the Republic resembles the philosophic thinktank mocked in Aristophanes' Clouds. By representing the extremes of the Republic's city, Plato shows that the dangers attributed by Aristophanes to the city are actually inherent in political life itself. They were to be moderated by Socratic political philosophy rather than Aristophanean comedy. Nichols concludes by showing how Aristotle addressed the question at issue between Plato and Aristophanes when he founded his political science. Judging Plato's and Aristophanes' positions as partial, Nichols argues that Aristotle based his political science on the necessity to philosophy of political involvement and the necessity to politics of philosophical thought.

Author : Mary P. Nichols
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Family & Relationships
ISBN : 9780521899734

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Socrates on Friendship and Community by Mary P. Nichols Pdf

In Socrates on Friendship and Community, Mary P. Nichols addresses Kierkegaard's and Nietzsche's criticism of Socrates and recovers the place of friendship and community in Socratic philosophizing. This approach stands in contrast to the modern philosophical tradition, in which Plato's Socrates has been viewed as an alienating influence on Western thought and life. Nichols' rich analysis of both dramatic details and philosophic themes in Plato's Symposium, Phaedras, and Lysis shows how love finds its fulfilment in the reciprocal relation of friends. Nichols also shows how friends experience another as their own and themselves as belonging to another. Their experience, she argues, both sheds light on the nature of philosophy and serves as a standard for a political life that does justice to human freedom and community.

Author : Mary P. Nichols
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 1987-01-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0887063950

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Socrates and the Political Community by Mary P. Nichols Pdf

This book takes a fresh look at Socrates as he appeared to three ancient writers: Aristophanes, who attacked him for his theoretical studies; Plato, who immortalized him in his dialogues; and Aristotle, who criticized his political views. It addresses the questions of the interrelation of politics and philosophy by looking at Aristophanes' Clouds, Plato's Republic, and Book II of Aristotle's Politics--three sides of a debate on the value of Socrates' philosophic life. Mary Nichols first discusses the relation between Aristophanes and Plato, showing that the city as Socrates' place of activity in the Republic resembles the philosophic thinktank mocked in Aristophanes' Clouds. By representing the extremes of the Republic's city, Plato shows that the dangers attributed by Aristophanes to the city are actually inherent in political life itself. They were to be moderated by Socratic political philosophy rather than Aristophanean comedy. Nichols concludes by showing how Aristotle addressed the question at issue between Plato and Aristophanes when he founded his political science. Judging Plato's and Aristophanes' positions as partial, Nichols argues that Aristotle based his political science on the necessity to philosophy of political involvement and the necessity to politics of philosophical thought.

Author : Alex Priou
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781580469197

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Becoming Socrates by Alex Priou Pdf

A rigorous investigation of Socrates' early education, pinpointing the thought that led Socrates to turn from natural science to the study of morality, ethics, and politics

Author : Kevin M. Cherry
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2014-01-02
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1107633508

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Plato, Aristotle, and the Purpose of Politics by Kevin M. Cherry Pdf

In this book, Kevin M. Cherry compares the views of Plato and Aristotle about the practice, study, and, above all, the purpose of politics. The first scholar to place Aristotle's Politics in sustained dialogue with Plato's Statesman, Cherry argues that Aristotle rejects the view of politics advanced by Plato's Eleatic Stranger, contrasting them on topics such as the proper categorization of regimes, the usefulness and limitations of the rule of law, and the proper understanding of phronēsis. The various differences between their respective political philosophies, however, reflect a more fundamental difference in how they view the relationship of human beings to the natural world around them. Reading the Politics in light of the Statesman sheds new light on Aristotle's political theory and provides a better understanding of Aristotle's criticism of Socrates. Most importantly, it highlights an enduring and important question: Should politics have as its primary purpose the preservation of life, or should it pursue the higher good of living well?

Author : Robert C. Bartlett
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 255 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2016-09-12
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780226394282

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Sophistry and Political Philosophy by Robert C. Bartlett Pdf

It was Nietzsche who first identified the similarities between the radical sophistry of antiquity and the contemporary relativism that has come to characterize modern thought. The anti-foundationalism of contemporary thought can be said to have been born with the Sophists, and, of all the Sophists who have come down to us, Protagoras is the most famous and challenging of them. Robert Bartlett s masterful book is the first to examine Plato s Protagoras and Theaetetus together to uncover what lies at the heart of Protagoras teaching, both its moral and political components and its theoretical and epistemological groundings. His superb exegesis of these two dialogues allows one to see more clearly the power of radical relativism: its strengths and its deficiencies. Bartlett notes that political philosophy has been supplanted in the modern era either by the study of the history of political philosophy or by relativism. Although "Understanding Political Philosophy and Sophistry" can certainly be taken as an example of the former, it is much more than that. It seeks to uncover what Socrates, in responding to that teaching, begins to reveal of his own understanding and characteristic activity. It helps us begin to understand, in other words, the phenomenon of philosophy, not just as a system of thought, but as Socrates lived it."

Author : Aristotle
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 455 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 1981-09-17
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780141913261

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The Politics by Aristotle Pdf

Twenty-three centuries after its compilation, 'The Politics' still has much to contribute to this central question of political science. Aristotle's thorough and carefully argued analysis is based on a study of over 150 city constitutions, covering a huge range of political issues in order to establish which types of constitution are best - both ideally and in particular circumstances - and how they may be maintained. Aristotle's opinions form an essential background to the thinking of philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas, Machiavelli and Jean Bodin and both his premises and arguments raise questions that are as relevant to modern society as they were to the ancient world.

Author : Christopher P. Long
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 229 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2014-11-28
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781107040359

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Socratic and Platonic Political Philosophy by Christopher P. Long Pdf

Socratic and Platonic Political Philosophy invites readers to participate in the practices of Socratic and Platonic politics.

Author : Jacob Howland
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 084768976X

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The Paradox of Political Philosophy by Jacob Howland Pdf

An examination of Socrates' trial as played out in the Apology, Theaetetus, Euthyphro, Cratylus, Sophist, and Statesman. Finding that the heart of the dialogues is the rivalry between the characters of the Stranger of Elea and Socrates, the author devotes a chapter to each dialogue and explores the Stranger of Elea's criticism that the uncompromising pursuit of knowledge conflicts with the task of weaving together humans into a political community. The melding of the arguments of Socrates and the Stranger of Elea, the author suggests, is the best path to understanding Plato's political philosophy. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Author : Paul Stern
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 1993-08-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781438421179

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Socratic Rationalism and Political Philosophy by Paul Stern Pdf

In this new interpretation of Plato's Phaedo, Paul Stern considers the dialogue as an invaluable source for understanding the distinctive character of Socratic rationalism. First, he demonstrates, contrary to the charge of such thinkers as Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Rorty, that Socrates' rationalism does not rest on the dogmatic presumption of the rationality of nature. Second, he shows that the distinctively Socratic mode of philosophizing is formulated precisely with a view to vindicating the philosophic life in the face of these uncertainties. And finally, he argues that this vindication results in a mode of inquiry that finds its ground in a clear understanding of the problematical but enduring human situation. Stern concludes that Socratic rationalism, aware as it is of the limits of reason, still provides a nondogmatic and nonarbitrary basis for human understanding.

Author : Plato
Publisher : The Floating Press
Page : 720 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2009-01-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781775413660

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The Republic by Plato Pdf

The Republic is Plato's most famous work and one of the seminal texts of Western philosophy and politics. The characters in this Socratic dialogue - including Socrates himself - discuss whether the just or unjust man is happier. They are the philosopher-kings of imagined cities and they also discuss the nature of philosophy and the soul among other things.

Author : Paul Stern
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 1993-08-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0791415740

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Socratic Rationalism and Political Philosophy by Paul Stern Pdf

In this new interpretation of Plato’s Phaedo, Paul Stern considers the dialogue as an invaluable source for understanding the distinctive character of Socratic rationalism. First, he demonstrates, contrary to the charge of such thinkers as Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Rorty, that Socrates’ rationalism does not rest on the dogmatic presumption of the rationality of nature. Second, he shows that the distinctively Socratic mode of philosophizing is formulated precisely with a view to vindicating the philosophic life in the face of these uncertainties. And finally, he argues that this vindication results in a mode of inquiry that finds its ground in a clear understanding of the problematical but enduring human situation. Stern concludes that Socratic rationalism, aware as it is of the limits of reason, still provides a nondogmatic and nonarbitrary basis for human understanding.

Author : Robert C. Bartlett,Susan D. Collins
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1999-08-26
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0791442527

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Action and Contemplation by Robert C. Bartlett,Susan D. Collins Pdf

European and North American scholars explore the political philosophy of Aristotle, with particular attention to questions arising from the Politics and the Nicomachean Ethics.

Author : Dana Villa
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2020-09-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780691218175

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Socratic Citizenship by Dana Villa Pdf

Many critics bemoan the lack of civic engagement in America. Tocqueville's ''nation of joiners'' seems to have become a nation of alienated individuals, disinclined to fulfill the obligations of citizenship or the responsibilities of self-government. In response, the critics urge community involvement and renewed education in the civic virtues. But what kind of civic engagement do we want, and what sort of citizenship should we encourage? In Socratic Citizenship, Dana Villa takes issue with those who would reduce citizenship to community involvement or to political participation for its own sake. He argues that we need to place more value on a form of conscientious, moderately alienated citizenship invented by Socrates, one that is critical in orientation and dissident in practice. Taking Plato's Apology of Socrates as his starting point, Villa argues that Socrates was the first to show, in his words and deeds, how moral and intellectual integrity can go hand in hand, and how they can constitute importantly civic--and not just philosophical or moral--virtues. More specifically, Socrates urged that good citizens should value this sort of integrity more highly than such apparent virtues as patriotism, political participation, piety, and unwavering obedience to the law. Yet Socrates' radical redefinition of citizenship has had relatively little influence on Western political thought. Villa considers how the Socratic idea of the thinking citizen is treated by five of the most influential political thinkers of the past two centuries--John Stuart Mill, Friedrich Nietzsche, Max Weber, Hannah Arendt, and Leo Strauss. In doing so, he not only deepens our understanding of these thinkers' work and of modern ideas of citizenship, he also shows how the fragile Socratic idea of citizenship has been lost through a persistent devaluation of independent thought and action in public life. Engaging current debates among political and social theorists, this insightful book shows how we must reconceive the idea of good citizenship if we are to begin to address the shaky fundamentals of civic culture in America today.

Author : Ronald Bartlett Levy
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 688 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 1953-01-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0674181115

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In Defense of Plato by Ronald Bartlett Levy Pdf