Table Of Content

Plato's Progeny CLASSICAL INTER/FACES SERIES Edited by Susanna Braund and Paul Cartledge Celebrity in Antiquity: from media tarts to tabloid queens Robert Garland Delusions of Invulnerability: wisdom and morality in ancient Greece, China and today G.E.R. Lloyd Figuratively Speaking: rhetoric and culture from Quintilian to the Twin Towers Sarah Spence Gender and the Interpretation of Classical Myth Lillian Doherty Lucretius and the Modern World W.R. Johnson Nation, Empire, Decline: studies in rhetorical continuity from the Romans to the modern era Nancy Shumate Pity Transformed David Konstan Plato's Progeny Melissa Lane Radical Theatre Rush Rehm Rome and the Literature of Gardens Victoria Pagan The Tragic Idea Vassilis Lambropoulos Translating Words, Translating Cultures Lorna Hardwick PLATO'S PROGENY How Socrates and Plato Still Captivate the Modern Mind Melissa Lane Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Pic B L O O M S B U RY LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Pic 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Pic This impression 2009 First published in 2001 by Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. ©MelissaLane, 2001 Melissa Lane has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of Hie material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publicatioii Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Libran-. ISBN: PB: 978-0-7156-2892-8 ePDF: 978-1-4725-0229-2 ePub: 978-1-4725-0230-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Series: Classical Inter/Faces Contents Note on References and Bibliography vii Acknowledgements ix 1. Introduction 1 2. Who Was Socrates? 11 3. Plato on Forms and Foundations: the First Metaphysician? 53 4. The Political Plato: the First Totalitarian, the First Communist, the First Idealist? 97 5. Conclusion 135 Notes 141 Further Reading 155 Index 159 V This page intentionally left blank Note on References and Bibliography Because this book is designed for the general reader, works are cited in foreign languages only where I know of no adequate translation or for the sake of acknowledging a standard edition. Quotations are from published translations wherever possible. Where a work is referred to by a foreign language title, translation from it is my own unless otherwise stated. Space restraints in this series mean that, while full references are given in the notes, only a select number of works are listed as further reading, and that little if any secondary literature on the authors discussed could be noted. A fuller bibliography and other further information can be found at: http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/histecon/plato/index.htm. Ancient texts are cited by the conventional numbering system (by section and/or line number) in each case. For ancient authors other than Plato and Aristotle, Loeb editions have been used. For Aris- totle, the standard Greek edition is the Oxford text, and the translation is that of The Complete Works of Aristotle: the revised Oxford translation, 2 vols, edited by J. Barnes (Princeton, 1984). For Plato, the Greek edition is the Oxford text, and the translations are those in the new standard collection, Plato: Complete Works, edited with Introduction and Notes by J.M. Cooper, with associate editor O.S. Hutchison (Hackett, 1997). The works included in that volume are as follows, in alphabetical order: Alcibiades**, Second Alcibiades*, Apology, Axiochus*, Charmides, Clitophon**, Cratylus, Critias, Crito, Definitions*, Demodocus*, Epigrams***, Epinomis*, Eryxias*, Euthydemus, Euthyphro, Gor- gias, Halcyon*, Hipparchus*, Greater Hippias*, Lesser Hippias,Ion, On Justice*, Laches, Laws, Letters***, Lysis, Menexenus, Meno, vil Plato's Progeny Minos*, Parmenides, Phaedo, Philebus, Protagoras, Republic, Rival Lovers*, Sisyphos*, Sophist, Statesman, Symposium, Theages*, Theaetetus, Timaeus, On Virtue* * 'It is generally agreed by scholars that Plato is not the author of this work.' ** 'It is not generally agreed by scholars whether Plato is the author of this work.' *** As to Plato's authorship of the individual Letters and Epi- grams, consult the respective introductory notes in Cooper, Plato. (The attributions quoted are from Cooper, Plato, p. vi.) Of those dialogues whose authenticity is not in question, Socrates appears in a major or minor part in all except the Laws. The works of Xenophon in which Socrates is mentioned are as follows: Anabasis, Hellenica, Memorabilia, Symposium. Those of Aristophanes are Birds, Clouds and Frogs. Author's note A brief comment on how this book compares to others in recent literature, all listed in Further Reading and referenced in the Notes. A.T. Peperzak and C. Zuckert (for Plato), S. Kofman and A. Nehamas (for Socrates) have each provided compelling overviews of the read- ings of Plato and Socrates respectively by important figures in what might broadly be considered postmodernism — collectively including Derrida, Gadamer, Heidegger, Levinas, Nietzsche and Strauss - as well as Montaigne, Hegel and Kierkegaard. None of them, however, has sought to put the postmodern preoccupation with Plato into any broader historical contexts, as is attempted here. Vlll Acknowledgements This book was inspired by a paper given by Myles Burnyeat (cited in the Conclusion), who explored the new nineteenth-century inter- est in the Republic and concluded that there was a book on the modern reception of Plato waiting to be written. He has pursued the idea in several important papers, particularly about the Victorians; I hope this further elaboration does it justice. For comments on earlier drafts, bibliographical advice, discussion, or all of the above, I wish to thank: Deborah Blake (Duckworth), Susanna Morton Braund, Myles Burnyeat, Paul Cartledge, Edward Castleton, Verity Harte, Douglas Hedley, Christian lilies, Susan James, Robert Kargman, Norman Lane, Sheila Lane, Douglas Mog- gach, Eric Nelson, George Pattison, Michael O'Brien, Emma Rothschild, Malcolm Schofield, Jonathan Scott, Ben Shaw, Michael Sonenscher, and especially, for many crucial and instructive conver- sations, Emile Perreau-Saussine and Martin Ruehl. Audiences at the Cambridge Seminar in the History of Philosophy, the Cambridge International Summer School in History, and the Institute of His- torical Research Seminar in the History of Ideas, queried earlier versions. The staffs of the British Library, Classics Faculty Library at Cambridge (in particular Librarian Dr Judith Waring), Cam- bridge University Library, Modern Archives Centre of King's College Cambridge (in particular Archivist Ros Moad), Library of the War- burg Institute, and Wren Library of Trinity College Cambridge all deserve warm thanks. Nick and Sarah Ray kindly volunteered the use of their cottage in Wales at just the right moment for writing. The Brownsteins, the Cambridge Kargmans, the Lanes, and the Malins all gave succour at a point of rest. Rosie Peppin Vaughan and David Price provided vital editorial assistance in the final stages. Throughout, Andrew IX