Platonic Errors - (Contributions in Philosophy) by Gene Fendt & David Rozema (Hardcover)

About the Book

While the dramatic approach to Plato's dialogues has become popular over the last decade, little attention has been paid to the poetic quality of Plato's writing, and the received view of Platonic philosophy still depends on an unpoetic and largely literalist reading of the dialogues. The authors of this volume focus on the text of selected dialogues to identify the thread that unifies each of them from a literary point of view. The conclusions they reach in practicing this kind of reading are diametrically opposed to the largest stream of Platonic scholarship and show the fallacy of important metaphysical, epistemological, political, and ethical positions frequently attributed to Plato.

Book Synopsis

While the dramatic approach to Plato's dialogues has become popular over the last decade, little attention has been paid to the poetic quality of Plato's writing, and the received view of Platonic philosophy still depends on an unpoetic and largely literalist reading of the dialogues. The authors of this volume focus on the text of selected dialogues to identify the thread that unifies each of them from a literary point of view. The conclusions they reach in practicing this kind of reading are diametrically opposed to the largest stream of Platonic scholarship and show the fallacy of important metaphysical, epistemological, political, and ethical positions frequently attributed to Plato.

Review Quotes

?This book is not merely an excellent and scholarly study of Plato. It engages the mind in the highest philosophic things, rooted in experience, poetry, and politics, and reaches for those things that Plato found reflected in the Good, indeed found in the Good itself.?-Perspectives on Political Science

"This book is not merely an excellent and scholarly study of Plato. It engages the mind in the highest philosophic things, rooted in experience, poetry, and politics, and reaches for those things that Plato found reflected in the Good, indeed found in the Good itself."-Perspectives on Political Science

About the Author

GENE FENDT is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska-Kearney. He is the author of two books, For What May I Hope? Thinking with Kant and Kierkegaard (1990) and Works of Love? Reflections on Works of Love (1990), and numerous journal articles.

DAVID ROZEMA is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska-Kearney. He has published several scholarly articles.