The Soul of Socrates

by Ranasinghe, Nalin

• ISBN13: 9780801437465
• ISBN10: 0801437466
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-07-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

Nalin Ranasinghe has a strong affection for the Socrates he finds in four of Plato's most influential dialogues. This engagingly humane book traces Plato's struggle to simultaneously understand and convey the erotic presence of Socrates. Most commentators suppose that Plato assumes an ironic distance from Socrates. Ranasinghe claims, rather, that the dialogues reflect Plato's awe and frustration before the enigmatic figure whose conduct fascinated and bewildered Classical Athens.

In original readings of the Republic, the Protagoras, the Phaedo, and the Symposium, Ranasinghe uncovers the profound literary and thematic unity of each work and shows new connections among the dialogues. From this re-reading, Ranasinghe proposes new answers to such perennial problems as the invalidity of the four proofs of the soul's immortality in the Phaedo, the draconian nature of the perfect regime described in the Republic, and the nature of Socrates' dalliance with Alcibiades in the Symposium.

The book begins with an exegesis of the Republic that defends Socrates against th

Author Biography

Nalis Ranasinghe is Assistant Professor in the philosophy department at Clark University.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xvii
Glaucon's Republic	1	(27)
Protagoras and the Myths of Sisyphus	28	(23)
Phaedo and the Socratic Mission	51	(55)
Symposium I: The Battle between Comedy and Tragedy	106	(38)
Symposium II: The Secrets of Silenus	144	(35)
Notes	179	(10)
Index	189