How Plato Writes

Perspectives and Problems

Malcolm Schofield

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English

Cambridge University Press
17 August 2023

Literary studies: classical, early & medieval; Philosophy; Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500

Plato is a philosophical writer of unusual and ingenious versatility. His works engage in argument but are also full of allegory, imagery, myth, paradox and intertextuality. He astutely characterises the participants whom he portrays in conversation. Sometimes he composes fictive dialogues in dramatic form while at other times he does so as narratives. In this book, world-renowned scholar Malcolm Schofield illustrates the variety of the literary resources that Plato deploys to achieve his philosophical purposes. He draws key passages for discussion particularly, but not only, from Republic and the less well-known Laws and also shows how reconstructing the original historical context of a dialogue and of its assumed readership is essential to understanding Plato's approach. The book will open the eyes of readers of all levels of expertise to Plato's masterly ability as a writer and how an understanding of this is crucial if we are to appreciate his philosophy.

By: Malcolm Schofield
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 160mm, Spine: 23mm
Weight: 610g
ISBN: 9781108483087
ISBN 10: 1108483089
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 17 August 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Part I. Approaches to the Corpus: 1. Plato in his Time and Place; 2. When and Why Did Plato Write Narrated Dialogues?; 3. Against System: the Historical Plato in the Mid-Victorian Era; Part II. Argument and Dialogue Architecture: 4. Callicles' Return: Gorgias 509-22 Reconsidered; 5. Likeness and Likenesses in the Parmenides; 6. The Elusiveness of Cratylus in the Cratylus; Part III. Myth and Allegory in the Republic: 7. The Noble Lie; 8. The Cave; Part IV. Projects, Paradoxes, and Literary Registers in the Laws: 9. Religion and Philosophy in the Laws; 10. The Laws' Two Projects; 11. Plato, Xenophon, and the laws of Lycurgus; 12. Injury, Injustice, and the Involuntary in the Laws; 13. Plato's Marionette; 14. Paradoxes of Childhood and Play in Heraclitus and Plato.

MALCOLM SCHOFIELD is an Emeritus Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of St John's College. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary International Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is recognized as one of the major scholars in the world currently working on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. His first book was An Essay on Anaxagoras (Cambridge, 1980), he co-authored with G. S. Kirk and J. E. Raven the second edition of The Presocratic Philosophers (Cambridge, 1983), and has co-edited numerous other collaborative volumes, including in 2015 with Catherine Rowett a special Heraclitus issue of the journal Rhizomata, and with Tom Griffith a new English edition of Plato's Laws (Cambridge, 2016). He now works mostly on Greek and Roman political philosophy. He was co-editor with Christopher Rowe of The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought (Cambridge, 2000). The Stoic Idea of the City (Cambridge, 1991), Saving the City (1999), Plato: Political Philosophy (2006) and Cicero: Political Philosophy (2021) are among his major solo publications.

Reviews for How Plato Writes: Perspectives and Problems

'This is a very welcome volume by a very distinguished scholar. The topics include Plato's epistemology and metaphysics, but most of the chapters focus on Plato's ethics, political philosophy, and psychology. In reading the dialogues, Schofield deftly combines literary and historical analysis with analytical rigor and such breadth is rare in Plato interpretation. Any student of Plato will gain much by reading and thinking deeply about the this book.' Chris Bobonich, Stanford University 'A fascinating intervention on Plato by one of his leading contemporary readers, How Plato Writes offers a nuanced and multifaceted exploration of key features of Plato's texts: image and argument, paradox, intertextuality and the literary staging of philosophical conversation. Schofield's probing analyses of thorny passages and interpretive problems are essential reading for experts yet accessible to a wide audience. The different chapters of the volume combine to form an interconnected and illuminating reflection on the challenging, puzzling and often playful nature of Plato's philosophical provocations.' Shaul Tor, King's College London