The pseudo-platonic seventh letter / Myles Burnyeat and Michael Frede ; edited by Dominic Scott.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burnyeat, Myles, author.

Frede, Michael, author.

Contributor:

Scott, Dominic, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plato. Epistles--7th--History and criticism.

Plato.

Plato--Spurious and doubtful works.

Physical Description:

xiv, 224 pages : facsimiles ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2015.

Summary:

The Platonic Seventh Letter describes Plato's attempts to turn the ruler of Sicily, Dionysius II, into a philosopher ruler along the lines of the Republic. It explains why Plato turned from politics to philosophy in his youth and how he then tried to apply his ideas to actual politics later on. It also sets out his views about language, writing, and philosophy. As such, it represents a potentially crucial source of information about Plato, who tells us almost nothing about himself in his dialogues. But is it genuine? Scholars have debated the issue for centuries, although recent opinion has moved in its favour. The origin of this book was a seminar given in Oxford in 2001 by Myles Burnyeat and Michael Frede, two of the most eminent scholars of ancient philosophy in recent decades. Michael Frede begins by casting doubt on the Letter by looking at it from the general perspective of letter writing in antiquity, when it was quite normal to fabricate letters by famous figures from the past. Both then attack the authenticity of the letter head-on by showing how its philosophical content conflicts with what we find in the Platonic dialogues. They also reflect on the question of why the Letter was written, whether as an attempt to exculpate Plato from the charge of meddling in politics (Frede), or as an attempt to portray, through literary means, the ways in which human weakness and emotions can lead to disasters in political life (Burnyeat). Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I Michael Frede

Seminar 1 3

Seminar 2 15

Seminar 3 27

Seminar 4 41

Seminar 5 59

Appendix 67

Editor's guide 85

Endnotes (Carol Atack and Dominic Scott) 99

Facsimile pages of Frede's notes 113

Part II Myles Burnyeat

1 The pseudo-philosophical digression in Epistle VII 121

2 The second prose tragedy: a literary analysis of the pseudo-Platonic Epistle VII 135

Appendix: Verbal repetitfveness in Epistle VII 193.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-204) and index.

ISBN:

9780198733652

0198733658

OCLC:

913793149