Genres in Dialogue: Plato and the Construct of Philosophy PDF
Preview Genres in Dialogue: Plato and the Construct of Philosophy
This book takes as its starting-point Plato's incorporation of specific genres of poetry and rhetoric into his dialogues. The author analyzes the intertextuality in Plato's dialogues in the context of both literary and social history, arguing in particular that Plato's "dialogues" with tradi tional genres are part and parcel of his effort to define "philosophy." Before Plato, "philosophy" denoted "intellectual cultivation" in the broadest sense. When Plato appropriated the term for his own in tellectual project, he created a new and specialized discipline. In order to define and legitimize "philosophy," Plato had to match it against genres of discourse that had authority and currency in democratic Athens. By incorporating the text or discourse of another genre into his own dia logues, Plato "defines" his new brand of wisdom in opposition to tradi tional modes of thinking and speaking. By targeting individual genres of discourse, each of which had a specific audience and perfonnative con text, Plato marks the boundaries of "philosophy" as a discursive and as a social practice. Genres in dialogue Genres in dialogue Plato and the construct ofp hilosophy Andrea Wilson Nightingale Assistant Professor of Classics, Stanford University ...,.CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521482646 © Cambridge University Press 1995 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1995 Reprinted 1997, 1998 First paperback edition 1999 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Nightingale, Andrea Wilson. Genres in dialogue : Plato and the construct of philosophy / Andrea Wilson Nightingale. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 48264 X 1. Plato. 2. Greek literature - History and criticism. 3. Literary form. 4. Rhetoric, Ancient. I. Title. B395.N54 1996 184-dc20 95-5879 CIP ISBN-13 978-0-521-48264-6 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-48264-X hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-77433-8 paperback ISBN-10 0-521-77433-0 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2007 For Douglas and Diana Wilson Contents Acknowledgments page xi Abbreviations and texts xiii Introduction 1 1 Plato, lsocrates, and the property of philosophy 13 2 Use and abuse of Athenian tragedy 60 3 Eulogy, irony, parody 93 4 Alien and authentic discourse 133 5 Philosophy and comedy 172 Conclusion 193 Bibliography 196 General index 213 Index ofp assages from Plato 220 ix
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