Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Glossary
- 1 The puzzle of Plato's thumos
- 2 Thumos, andreia and the ethics of flourishing
- 3 Arms and the man: andreia in the Laches
- 4 Odd virtue out: courage and goodness in the Protagoras
- 5 Why should I be good? Callicles, Thrasymachus and the egoist challenge
- 6 Heroes and role models: the Apology, Hippias Major and Hippias Minor
- 7 The threat of Achilles
- 8 Plato's response: the valuable as one
- 9 Alcibiades' revenge: thumos in the Symposium
- Epilogue: The weaver's art: andreia in the Politicus and Laws
- Bibliography
- Index
Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Glossary
- 1 The puzzle of Plato's thumos
- 2 Thumos, andreia and the ethics of flourishing
- 3 Arms and the man: andreia in the Laches
- 4 Odd virtue out: courage and goodness in the Protagoras
- 5 Why should I be good? Callicles, Thrasymachus and the egoist challenge
- 6 Heroes and role models: the Apology, Hippias Major and Hippias Minor
- 7 The threat of Achilles
- 8 Plato's response: the valuable as one
- 9 Alcibiades' revenge: thumos in the Symposium
- Epilogue: The weaver's art: andreia in the Politicus and Laws
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This book arose initially from my fascination with certain of the Platonic Socrates' interlocutors, and in particular with Callicles and Alcibiades. Why was Plato so ready to give room to the views of such unSocratic and charismatic opponents? The answer, I believed, had largely to do with his abiding interest in different conceptions of manliness and courage (andreia), and hence also with different conditions of the spirited element of the Republic's tripartite psuchē (the thumos), with which andreia is especially connected. At this juncture I came across Allan Bloom's interpretative essay on the Republic, in which he highlights the central role played by Achilles in Books 2 and 3, and it became evident that Plato's concern with Achilles throughout the early and middle dialogues was also part of this interest in notions of andreia. In short, it seemed to me that there was a book to be written on andreia and thumos in early and middle Plato, focusing not only on the theoretical discussions of the Laches and Protagoras, but also on these three characters (who were quickly joined by Thrasymachus).
Such a study necessarily touches on many overlapping aspects of Plato's thought. The introduction of Achilles inevitably raises the issue of Plato's complex attitude to Homer, and his ambivalent deployment of other Homeric heroes, most notably Odysseus. Such topics in their turn prompt questions concerning role models and education in general, and relations between individual and community.
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- Information
- Plato and the HeroCourage, Manliness and the Impersonal Good, pp. xii - xvPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000