The sacrifice of Socrates : Athens, Plato, Girard / Wm. Blake Tyrrell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tyrrell, William Blake.

Series:

Studies in violence, mimesis, and culture

Studies in violence, mimesis, and culture series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Socrates.

Plato--Criticism and interpretation.

Plato.

Girard, René, 1923-2015.

Girard, René.

Criticism and interpretation.

Athens (Greece)--History--Thirty Tyrants, 404-403 B.C.

Athens (Greece).

Greece--History--Peloponnesian War, 431-404 B.C.

Greece.

History.

Physical Description:

xix, 189 pages. ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, 2012.

Summary:

When Athenians suffered the shame of having lost a war from their own greed and foolishness, around 404 BCE, many of them blamed Socrates, a man whose unique appearance and behavior, as well as his disapproval of the democracy, made him a ready target. Socrates was subsequently put on trial and sentenced to death. However, as René Girard has pointed out, no individual can be held responsible for a communal crisis. Plato's Apology depicts Socrates as both the bane and the cure of Greek society, while his Crito shows a sacrificial Socrates, what some might consider a pharmakos figure, the human drug through whom Plato can dispense his philosophical remedies. With tremendous insight and satisfying complexity, this book analyzes classical texts through the lens of Girard's mimetic mechanism. Book jacket.

Contents:

Mimesis, conflict, and crisis

Plato's victimary culture

Aristophanic Socrates: ready victim

Foundation murder.

Notes:

Includes bibliographic references and index.

ISBN:

9781611860542

1611860547

OCLC:

768728927