How Philosophy Became Socratic

by Lampert, Laurence

• ISBN13: 9780226470962
• ISBN10: 0226470962
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-07-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Plato's dialogues show Socrates at different ages, beginning when he was about nineteen and already deeply immersed in philosophy and ending with his execution five decades later. By presenting his model philosopher across a fifty-year span of his life, Plato leads his readers to wonder: does that time period correspond to the development of Socrates' thought? In this magisterial investigation of the evolution of Socrates' philosophy, Laurence Lampert answers in the affirmative. The chronological route that Plato maps for us, Lampert argues, reveals the enduring record of philosophy as it took the form that came to dominate the life of the mind in the West. The reader accompanies Socrates as he breaks with the century-old tradition of philosophy, turns to his own path, steadily enters into a deeper understanding of nature and human nature, and discovers the successful way to transmit his wisdom to the wider world. Focusing on the final and most prominent step in that process and offering detailed textual analysis of Plato'sProtagoras,Charmides, andRepublic,How Philosophy Became Socraticcharts Socrates' gradual discovery of a proper politics to shelter and advance philosophy.

Author Biography

Laurence Lampert is emeritus professor of philosophy at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. He is the author of four books, including Leo Strauss and Nietzsche, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and Nietzsche and Modern Times: A Study of Bacon, Descartes, and Nietzsche.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Philosophy in a Time of Splendor: Socrates in Periclean Athens before the War, c.	p. 433
Protagoras: Socrates and the Greek Enlightenment	p. 19
Prologue: Great Protagoras	p. 19
First Words	p. 21
The Frame Conversation	p. 24
Socrates with a Young Athenian	p. 28
Socrates in Hades	p. 34
Protagoras Introduces Himself	p. 37
Socrates' Challenge and Invitation: Can the Political Art Be Taught?	p. 43
Protagoras's Display Speech: Why the Political Art Is Teachable	p. 50
Socrates' Display Speech, Part I: The Wise Must Teach That Virtue Is Unitary	p. 70
Socrates Stages a Crisis	p. 79
Socrates' Display Speech, Part II: A Wiser Stance toward the Wise	p. 85
Alcibiades Presides	p. 98
Socrates' Display Speech, Part III: A Wiser Stance toward the Many	p. 102
The Final Tribunal: Courage and Wisdom	p. 117
Socrates the Victor	p. 121
Last Words	p. 124
Socrates' Politics for Philosophy in 433	p. 130
Note on the Dramatic Date of Protagoras and Alcibiades I	p. 141
Philosophy in a Time of Crisis: Socrates' Return to War-Ravaged, Plague-Ravaged Athens, Late Spring	p. 429
Charmides: Socrates' Philosophy and Its Transmission	p. 147
Prologue: The Return of Socrates	p. 147
First Words	p. 148
Socrates' Intentions	p. 153
The Spectacle of Charmides' Entrance	p. 157
Critias Scripts a Play but Socrates Takes It Over	p. 162
Stripping Charmides' Soul	p. 169
What Critias Took from Socrates and What That Riddler Had in Mind	p. 178
Should Each of the Beings Become Clearly Apparent Just As It Is?	p. 194
The Final Definition of Sôphrosunê, Socrates' Definition	p. 199
The Possibility of Socrates' Sôphrosunê	p. 203
The Benefit of Socrates' Sôphrosunê	p. 213
Socrates Judges the Inquiry	p. 226
Last Words	p. 230
Who Might the Auditor of Plato's Charmides Be?	p. 235
Note on the Dramatic Date of Charmides	p. 237
The Republic: The Birth of Platonism	p. 241
Prologue: Socrates' Great Politics	p. 241
The World to Which Socrates Goes Down	p. 243
First Words	p. 243
The Compelled and the Voluntary	p. 247
Learning from Cephalus	p. 248
Polemarchus and Socratic Justice	p. 253
Gentling Thrasymachus	p. 257
The State of the Young in Athens	p. 271
Socrates' New Beginning	p. 279
New Gods	p. 279
New Philosophers	p. 289
New Justice in a New Soul	p. 293
Compulsion and Another Beginning	p. 306
The Center of the Republic: The Philosopher Ruler	p. 312
Glaucon, Ally of the Philosopher's Rule	p. 320
Platonism: Philosophy's Political Defense and Introduction to Philosophy	p. 329
Public Speakers for Philosophy	p. 337
Images of the Greatest Study: Sun, Line, Cave	p. 348
The Last Act of the Returned Odysseus	p. 375
Love and Reverence for Homer	p. 375
Homer's Deed	p. 377
Homer's Children	p. 382
Rewards and Prizes for Socrates' Children	p. 389
Replacing Homer's Hades	p. 394
Last Words	p. 403
Note on the Dramatic Date of the Republic	p. 405
Epilogue	p. 413
Works Cited	p. 419
Index	p. 425
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