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[ SOLD OUT ] BLÖSNER, N., Musenrede und 'geometrische Zahl'. Ein Beispiel platonischer Dialoggestaltung ('Politeia' VIII, 545 c 8-547 a 7). Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Lliteratur, Mainz / Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1999.194p. Sewn. Series: Abhandlungen der Geistes- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse, Jahrgang 1999, Nr. 7. 'Norbert Blössner has devoted a monograph to (...) the speech (in the 'Republic') that Socrates places in the mouth of the muses to explain the source of 'stasis' in the (ideal) state nbd the inevitably of constitutional change. (...) B. focuses first of the mathematical passage, providing a commentary and a review of the main lines to approach the problem, ancient and modern. (...) B.'s exposition, based on a close reading of the primary and secondary literature, is thorough, lucid, and persuasive. (...) Chapter 2 subjects the speech to penetrating analysis, and identifies gaps and logical incoherencies in the argument. At the heart of this is an extended critique of the Muses' application of the general proposition that all earthly things must perish to an ideal state that has not come into existence. (...) Does any serious purpose underlie the Muses' speech? B. Takes Socrates' ntroduction, and his warning of the Muses' playfulness, more or less at face value as Plato's warning not to take them too seriously. (...) The discussion would have benefited from closer engagement with recent work on the subject of lies and fiction in the ancient world. (...) B. does not show much interest in the (inter)textual third dimension, and he is generally less assured in assessing literary issues than the logical coherence of it philosophical content. He follows Hellwich in arguing that the speech is a pastiche of sophistical rhetorical showmanship, a judgement that places much emphasis on stylistic features lying on the surface of the text but does not account satisfactorily for (...) the riddling character that B. himself identifies. (...) B. has given a masterly synthesis of the mathematical problem, and he has posed pertinent questions about the relevance and coherence of he Muses' speech; but the book does not bring to bear the full arsenal of analytical firepower now at the critic's disposal, and as a literary reading it misses its target.' (ALEX HARDIE in The Classical Review, New Series, 2003, pp.52-53). From the library of the late Professor Doktor Nikolaus Himmelmann. (Antiquarian) (approx. delivery time: undeliverable) ISBN: 9783515075404