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The Sacrifice of Socrates: Athens, Plato, Girard PDF

210 Pages·2012·0.815 MB·English
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T S he acrifice S of ocrates Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture SERIES EDITOR William A. Johnsen Th e Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture Series examines issues related to the nexus of violence and religion in the genesis and maintenance of culture. It furthers the agenda of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion, an international association that draws inspiration from René Girard’s mimetic hypothesis on the relationship between violence and religion, elaborated in a stunning series of books he has written over the last forty years. Readers interested in this area of research can also look to the association’s journal, Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Rebecca Adams, Independent Scholar Mark Juergensmeyer, University of California, Mark Anspach, École Polytechnique, Paris Santa Barbara Ann Astell, University of Notre Dame Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Shaw Divinity School Cesáreo Bandera, University of North Carolina Michael Kirwan, SJ, Heythrop College, University Maria Stella Barberi, Università di Messina of London Benoît Chantre, L’association Recherches Paisley Livingston, Lingnan University, Mimétiques Hong Kong Diana Culbertson, Kent State University Charles Mabee, Ecumenical Th eological Seminary, Paul Dumouchel, Ritsumeikan University Detroit Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Stanford University, École Józef Niewiadomski, Universität Innsbruck Polytechnique Wolfgang Palaver, Universität Innsbruck Giuseppe Fornari, Università degli studi di Bergamo Martha Reineke, University of Northern Iowa Eric Gans, University of California, Los Angeles Tobin Siebers, University of Michigan Sandor Goodhardt, Purdue University Th ee Smith, Emory University Robert Hamerton-Kelly, Stanford University Mark Wallace, Swarthmore College Hans Jensen, Aarhus University, Denmark Eugene Webb, University of Washington T S he acrifice S of ocrates Athens, Plato, Girard Wm. Blake Tyrrell Michigan State University Press · East Lansing Copyright © 2012 by Wm. Blake Tyrrell i Th e paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper). pMichigan State University Press East Lansing, Michigan 48823-5245 Printed and bound in the United States of America. 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Tyrrell, William Blake. Th e sacrifice of Socrates : Athens, Plato, Girard / Wm. Blake Tyrrell. pages. cm. — (Studies in violence, mimesis, and culture series) Includes bibliographic references and index. ISBN 978-1-61186-054-2 (paperback : alkaline paper) 1. Socrates. 2. Plato—Criticism and interpretation. 3. Girard, René, 1923– 4. Athens (Greece)—History—Th irty Tyrants, 404–403 b.c. 5. Greece—History—Peloponnesian War, 431–404 b.c. I. Title. II. Series: Studies in violence, mimesis, and culture. B316.T97 2012 183’.2—dc23 2011050523 Book by Charlie Sharp, Sharp Des!gns, Lansing, Michigan Cover design by David Drummond, Salamander Design, www.salamanderdesign.com Cover art is a detail from School of Athens, from the Stanza della Segnatura, 1510-11 (fresco) (detail of 472) by Raphael (Raff aello Sanzio of Urbino) (1483-1520) located in Vatican Museums and Galleries, Vatican City, Italy. Image courtesy of Giraudon, Th e Bridgeman Art Library. G Michigan State University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative and is committed to developing and encouraging ecologically responsible publishing practices. For more information about the Green Press Initiative and the use of recycled paper in book publishing, please visit www.greenpressinitiative.org. Visit Michigan State University Press at www.msupress.org For Larry Joe Bennett April 1, 1949–April 20, 2006 Son, Brother, Soldier, Husband, Father, Pa, Nephew, Uncle, Cousin, Friend, Colleague Contents ix Preface xi Introduction 1 chapter 1. Mimesis, Conflict, and Crisis 41 chapter 2. Plato’s Victimary Culture 73 chapter 3. Aristophanes’ Ready Victim 91 chapter 4. Foundation Murder 151 Notes 175 Bibliography 185 Index Preface I n the late 1980s Larry Joe Bennett and I began researching the Socrates of Plato’s Apology of Socrates as a pharmakos figure. Encountering resistance to our nonhistorical approach, we turned to Aristophanes’ Knights, whose underlying structure we believed was that of the pharmakos. Aft er overcoming prejudices against the Cambridge School, whose “heresies” we were charged with reviving, we published our study of Knights in Arethusa (1990). In the meantime, our interest had shift ed to the influence of funeral oratory in Sophocles’ Antigone. By the time that we had worked out our interpretation in Recapturing Sophocles’ Antigone (1998) and were out from under the weight of accepted knowledge about the play, we had been away from the Socrates idea for some fift een years. We were getting back to it when one morning in April of 2006 Joe died. With him perished the direction that the study would have taken. I returned to the hypothesis of René Girard that proved to be useful in reading Sophocles’ Ajax (Arethusa 1985) and Antigone (Contagion 2009). From there, I moved to the present endeavor, an essay of Plato’s project from the perspective and methodology of Girard’s mimetic mechanism. It is intended as a contribution to Girardian studies and, in particular, his theories on the origin of culture in mimetic rivalry and victimization. In what follows, I attempt to apply René Girard’s theory, his ix

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