Browse our books below. You can also search for books.
ALLEN, Danielle S., Why Plato Wrote. Wiley-Blackwell, n.p., 2010. 232p. Cloth wrps. Series: Blackwell Bristol Lectures on Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition. Unlike critics who deny that Plato 'says' anything in his dialogues, or who give authorial intent in general a wide berth, Danielle Allen in this wide-ranging study seeks to illuminate Plato’s meaning by answering the question, 'Why did Plato write anyway?' (p. 4). Her study focuses on the power of symbols to move the emotions and focus the understanding. According to her, Plato’s goal in writing was to use the power of images in language to promote political reform. This subsumed his other motives: writing 'to displace the poets (...). Plato wrote unacknowledged legislation,' aiming at a wide, educated readership, not only at a philosophical elite(p. 77). To test this conclusion, Allen traces the effects of Plato’s writing upon political institutions in Athens. When the same words and concepts occur in Plato and later in the fourth century BCE in Athenian political discourse, she concludes that they migrated from philosophy into politics as part of a 'culture war' that Plato ignited. No advocate of withdrawal from politics, nor only a dialectician for initiates, Allen’s Plato was also “a master of the sound bite ... the western world’s first message man (p. 147).' (...) I have learned much from this book. It demands that we connect Plato’s writing to real life in his city. Even those who do not share all its conclusions will be challenged by Allen’s many original insights into how Plato used symbols to work on our intellect, our preconceptual beliefs, and our emotions.' (DAVID J. MURPHY in Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2011.11.44). € 63.50 (New) ISBN: 9781444334487