Platonic Noise

by Euben, J. Peter

• ISBN13: 9780691114002
• ISBN10: 0691114005
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781400825585
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-14
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr
• More Book Details
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Summary

Platonic Noisebrings classical and contemporary writings into conversation to enrich our experience of modern life and politics. Drawing on writers as diverse as Plato, Homer, Nietzsche, Borges, Don DeLillo, and Philip Roth, Peter Euben shows us the relevance of both popular literature and ancient Greek thought to current questions of loss, mourning, and democracy--all while arguing for the redeeming qualities of political and intellectual work and making an original case against presentism. Juxtaposing ancient and contemporary texts, politics, and culture, Euben reflects on a remarkable range of recent issues and controversies. He discusses Stoic cosmopolitanism and globalization, takes a critical look at Nietzsche's own efforts to make the Greeks speak to the issues of his day, examines a Greek tragedy through Hannah Arendt's eyes, compares the role of comedy in ancient Athens and contemporary America, analyzes political theory as a reaction to an acute sense of loss, and considers questions of agency and morality. Platonic Noisemakes a case for reading political theory and politics through literature. Working as much through example as through explicit argument, Euben casts the literary memory of Athenian democracy as a crucial cultural resource and a presence in contemporary political and theoretical debates. In so doing, he reasserts the moral value of what we used to call participatory democracy and the practical value of seeing ourselves with the help of insights from long-gone Greeks.

Author Biography

J. Peter Euben is Research Professor of Political Science and Kenan Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Ethics at Duke University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(13)
On the Uses and Disadvantages of Hellenic Studies for Political and Theoretical Life	14	(26)
Hannah Arendt at Colonus	40	(24)
Aristophanes in America	64	(21)
The Politics of Nostalgia and Theories of Loss	85	(27)
The Polis, Globalization, and the Citizenship of Place	112	(29)
Platonic Noise	141	(34)
Notes	175	(26)
Index	201