The Neoplatonic Socrates / edited by Danielle A. Layne and Harold Tarrant ; contributors Crystal Addey [and nine others].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Layne, Danielle A., editor.

Tarrant, Harold, editor.

Addey, Crystal, contributor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Socrates.

Neoplatonism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (263 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Today the name Socrates invokes a powerful idealization of wisdom and nobility that would surprise many of his contemporaries, who excoriated the philosopher for corrupting youth. The problem of who Socrates "really" was—the true history of his activities and beliefs—has long been thought insoluble, and most recent Socratic studies have instead focused on reconstructing his legacy and tracing his ideas through other philosophical traditions. But this scholarship has neglected to examine closely a period of philosophy that has much to reveal about what Socrates stood for and how he taught: the Neoplatonic tradition of the first six centuries C.E., which at times decried or denied his importance yet relied on his methods. In The Neoplatonic Socrates, leading scholars in classics and philosophy address this gap by examining Neoplatonic attitudes toward the Socratic method, Socratic love, Socrates's divine mission and moral example, and the much-debated issue of moral rectitude. Collectively, they demonstrate the importance of Socrates for the majority of Neoplatonists, a point that has often been questioned owing to the comparative neglect of surviving commentaries on the Alcibiades, Gorgias, Phaedo, and Phaedrus, in favor of dialogues dealing explicitly with metaphysical issues. Supplemented with a contextualizing introduction and a substantial appendix detailing where evidence for Socrates can be found in the extant literature, The Neoplatonic Socrates makes a clear case for the significant place Socrates held in the education and philosophy of late antiquity. Contributors: Crystal Addey, James M. Ambury, John F. Finamore, Michael Griffin, Marilynn Lawrence, Danielle A. Layne, Christina-Panagiota Manolea, François Renaud, Geert Roskam, Harold Tarrant.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1. Socratic Love in Neoplatonism

Chapter 2. Plutarch and Apuleius on Socrates’ Daimonion

Chapter 3. The Daimonion of Socrates: Daimones and Divination in Neoplatonism

Chapter 4. Socrates in the Neoplatonic Psychology of Hermias

Chapter 5. The Character of Socrates and the Good of Dialogue Form: Neoplatonic Hermeneutics

Chapter 6. Hypostasizing Socrates

Chapter 7. Socratic Character: Proclus on the Function of Erotic Intellect

Chapter 8. The Elenctic Strategies of Socrates: The Alcibiades I and the Commentary of Olympiodorus

Chapter 9. Akrasia and Enkrateia in Simplicius’s Commentary on Epictetus’s Encheiridion

Chapter 10. The Many-Voiced Socrates: Neoplatonist Sensitivity to Socrates’ Change of Register

Conclusion

Appendix: The Reception of Socrates in Late Antiquity: Authors, Texts, and Notable References

Notes

Bibliography

Contributors

General Index

Acknowledgments

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780812210002

081221000X

OCLC:

889315173