Plato and the Body
Title | Plato and the Body PDF eBook |
Author | Coleen P. Zoller |
Publisher | State University of New York Press |
Pages | 270 |
Release | 2018-07-11 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 1438470835 |
For centuries, it has been the prevailing view that in prioritizing the soul, Plato ignores or even abhors the body; however, in Plato and the Body Coleen P. Zoller argues that Plato does value the body and the role it plays in philosophical life, focusing on Plato's use of Socrates as an exemplar. Zoller reveals a more refined conception of the ascetic lifestyle epitomized by Socrates in Plato's Phaedo, Symposium, Phaedrus, Gorgias, and Republic. Her interpretation illuminates why those who want to be wise and good have reason to be curious about and love the natural world and the bodies in it, and has implications for how we understand Plato's metaphysical and political commitments. This book shows the relevance of this broader understanding of Plato for work on a variety of relevant contemporary issues, including sexual morality, poverty, wealth inequality, and peace.
Plato and the Body
Title | Plato and the Body PDF eBook |
Author | Coleen P. Zoller |
Publisher | Suny Ancient Greek Philosophy |
Pages | 268 |
Release | 2019-07-02 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9781438470825 |
Offers an innovative reading of Plato, analyzing his metaphysical, ethical, and political commitments in connection with feminist critiques.
Plato on the Limits of Human Life
Title | Plato on the Limits of Human Life PDF eBook |
Author | Sara Brill |
Publisher | Indiana University Press |
Pages | 273 |
Release | 2013-06-03 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0253008913 |
“A book that is an ambitious, well-researched and provocative scholarly reflection on soul in the Platonic corpus.” —Polis By focusing on the immortal character of the soul in key Platonic dialogues, Sara Brill shows how Plato thought of the soul as remarkably flexible, complex, and indicative of the inner workings of political life and institutions. As she explores the character of the soul, Brill reveals the corrective function that law and myth serve. If the soul is limitless, she claims, then the city must serve a regulatory or prosthetic function and prop up good political institutions against the threat of the soul’s excess. Brill’s sensitivity to dramatic elements and discursive strategies in Plato’s dialogues illuminates the intimate connection between city and soul. “Sara Brill takes on at least two significant issues in Platonic scholarship: the nature of the soul, and especially the language of immortality in its description, and the relationship between politics and psychology. She treats each one of these topics in a fresh and nuanced way. Her writing is beautiful and fluid.” —Marina McCoy, Boston College
Plato on Music, Soul and Body
Title | Plato on Music, Soul and Body PDF eBook |
Author | Francesco Pelosi |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 238 |
Release | 2010-10-28 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 9780521760454 |
Plato's reflection on the relationship between soul and body has attracted scholars' attention since antiquity. Less noted, but worth careful consideration, is Plato's thought on music and its effects on human beings. Discovering and emphasising the philosophical value of Plato's treatment of the musical phenomenon, this book analyses the soul-body problem from an innovative point of view. By investigating in detail how Plato conceives of the musical experience and its influence on intelligence, passions and perceptions, it brings to light the intersection of cognitive and emotional functions in Plato's philosophy of mind.
Plato and the Divided Self
Title | Plato and the Divided Self PDF eBook |
Author | Rachel Barney |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 409 |
Release | 2012-02-16 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0521899664 |
Investigates Plato's account of the tripartite soul, looking at how the theory evolved over the Republic, Phaedrus and Timaeus.
Ancient Greek Psychology and the Modern Mind-body Debate
Title | Ancient Greek Psychology and the Modern Mind-body Debate PDF eBook |
Author | Erik Nis Ostenfeld |
Publisher | |
Pages | 120 |
Release | 1987 |
Genre | History |
ISBN |
Plato on Pleasure and the Good Life
Title | Plato on Pleasure and the Good Life PDF eBook |
Author | Daniel Russell |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 283 |
Release | 2005-09-15 |
Genre | Language Arts & Disciplines |
ISBN | 0199282846 |
Daniel Russell examines Plato's subtle and insightful analysis of pleasure and explores its intimate connections with his discussions of value and human psychology. Russell offers a fresh perspective on how good things bear on happiness in Plato's ethics, and shows that, for Plato, pleasure cannot determine happiness because pleasure lacks a direction of its own. Plato presents wisdom as a skill of living that determines happiness by directing one's life as a whole, bringing aboutgoodness in all areas of one's life, as a skill brings about order in its materials. The 'materials' of the skill of living are, in the first instance, not things like money or health, but one's attitudes, emotions, and desires where things like money and health are concerned. Plato recognizes thatthese 'materials' of the psyche are inchoate, ethically speaking, and in need of direction from wisdom. Among them is pleasure, which Plato treats not as a sensation but as an attitude with which one ascribes value to its object. However, Plato also views pleasure, once shaped and directed by wisdom, as a crucial part of a virtuous character as a whole. Consequently, Plato rejects all forms of hedonism, which allows happiness to be determined by a part of the psyche that does not direct one'slife but is among the materials to be directed. At the same time, Plato is also able to hold both that virtue is sufficient for happiness, and that pleasure is necessary for happiness, not as an addition to one's virtue, but as a constituent of one's whole virtuous character itself. Plato thereforeoffers an illuminating role for pleasure in ethics and psychology, one to which we may be unaccustomed: pleasure emerges not as a sensation or even a mode of activity, but as an attitude - one of the ways in which we construe our world - and as such, a central part of every character.