Plato's Statesman

Description

The Statesman is among the most widely ranging of Plato's dialogues, bringing together in a single discourse disparate subjects such as politics, mathematics, ontology, dialectic, and myth. The essays in this collection consider these subjects and others, focusing in particular on the dramatic form of the dialogue. They take into account not only what is said but also how it is said, by whom and to whom it is said, and when and where it is said. In this way, the contributors approach the text in a manner that responds to the dialogue itself rather than bringing preconceived questions and scholarly debates to bear on it. The essays are especially attuned to the comedic elements that run through much of the dialogue and that are played out in a way that reveals the subject of the comedy. In the Statesman, these comedies reach their climax when the statesman becomes a participant in a comedy of animals and thereby is revealed in his true nature.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
John Sallis

1. Beginnings—
John Sallis

2. From Spontaneity to Automaticity: Polar (Opposite) Reversal at Statesman 269c–274d
Michael Naas

3. Autochthony, Sexual Reproduction, and Political Life in the Statesman Myth
Sara Brill

4. Where Have All the Shepherds Gone? Socratic Withdrawal in Plato’s Statesman
S. Montgomery Ewegen

5. The Politics of Time: On the Relationship between Life and Law in Plato’s Statesman
Walter A. Brogan

6. A Little Move toward Greek Philosophy: Reassessing the Statesman Myth
Nickolas Pappas

7. Noêsis and Logos in the Eleatic Trilogy, with a Focus on the Visitor’s Jokes at Statesman 266a-d
Mitchell Miller

8. Finding the Right Concepts: On Dialectics in Plato’s Statesman
Günter Figal

9. Paradigm and Dialectical Inquiry in Plato’s Statesman
Eric Sanday

10. The Art of the Example in Plato’s Statesman
James Risser

11. Reconsidering the Relations between the Statesman, the Philosopher, and the Sophist
Noburu Notomi

12. Syngrammatology in Plato’s Statesman
Robert Metcalf

13. Stranger than the Stranger: Axiothea
Drew A. Hyland

14. On Law and the Science of Politics in Plato’s Statesman 237
Robert C. Bartlett

15. Adrift on the Boundless Sea of Unlikeness: Sophistry and Law in the Statesman
Ryan Drake

16. The Philosophers in Plato’s Trilogy
Burt C. Hopkins

17. Transformations: Platonic Mythos and Plotinian Logos
Gary M. Gurtler, S.J.

Bibliography
Contributors
English Index
Greek Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique
• Philosophie antique
• Ancient philosophy
• Philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 28 novembre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438464107
• Langue: English

Extrait

Plato’s Statesman
SUNY SERIES IN C ONTEMPORARY C ONTINENTAL P HILOSOPHY
Dennis J. Schmidt, editor
Plato’s Statesman
D IALECTIC , M YTH , AND P OLITICS

EDITED BY
JOHN SALLIS
Cover image: Bust of Pericles bearing the inscription “Pericles, son of Xanthippus, Athenian.” Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original from ca. 430 BC. Photograph by Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons
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STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sallis, John, [date- ] editor.
Title: Plato’s Statesman : dialectic, myth, and politics / edited by John Sallis.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Series: SUNY series in contemporary continental philosophy | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016031458 (print) | LCCN 2016050247 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438464091 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438464107 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Plato. Statesman. | Plato—Political and social views. | Political science—Early works to 1800.
Classification: LCC JC71.P314 P53 2017 (print) | LCC JC71.P314 (ebook) | DDC 321/.07—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016031458
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
John Sallis
1 Beginnings—
John Sallis
2 From Spontaneity to Automaticity: Polar (Opposite) Reversal at Statesman 269c–274d
Michael Naas
3 Autochthony, Sexual Reproduction, and Political Life in the Statesman Myth
Sara Brill
4 Where Have All the Shepherds Gone? Socratic Withdrawal in Plato’s Statesman
S. Montgomery Ewegen
5 The Politics of Time: On the Relationship between Life and Law in Plato’s Statesman
Walter A. Brogan
6 A Little Move toward Greek Philosophy: Reassessing the Statesman Myth
Nickolas Pappas
7 Noêsis and Logos in the Eleatic Trilogy, with a Focus on the Visitor’s Jokes at Statesman 266a-d
Mitchell Miller
8 Finding the Right Concepts: On Dialectics in Plato’s Statesman
Günter Figal
9 Paradigm and Dialectical Inquiry in Plato’s Statesman
Eric Sanday
10 The Art of the Example in Plato’s Statesman
James Risser
11 Reconsidering the Relations between the Statesman, the Philosopher, and the Sophist
Noburu Notomi
12 Syngrammatology in Plato’s Statesman
Robert Metcalf
13 Stranger than the Stranger: Axiothea
Drew A. Hyland
14 On Law and the Science of Politics in Plato’s Statesman
Robert C. Bartlett
15 Adrift on the Boundless Sea of Unlikeness: Sophistry and Law in the Statesman
Ryan Drake
16 The Philosophers in Plato’s Trilogy
Burt C. Hopkins
17 Transformations: Platonic Mythos and Plotinian Logos
Gary M. Gurtler, S.J.
Bibliography
Contributors
English Index
Greek Index
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Nancy Fedrow for her unstinting and expert assistance in preparing this text for publication. Thanks also to Stephen Mendelsohn and John Bagby for editorial assistance.
Introduction

John Sallis
If the Statesman is regarded only in its most general features, it may well seem to lack the uniform texture, the coherent structure, and the poetic elegance so amply displayed by most other Platonic dialogues. Unlike the Theaetetus and the Sophist , the two dialogues that precede it in the dramatic sequence, the Statesman does not readily announce either a primary, governing theme or a single underlying method. To be sure, its title is thematically indicative, and yet within the dialogue itself what one finds is a strange mixture of politics with mathematics and ontology in addition to dialectic and myth. What is perhaps most striking in this regard is the wholly unmediated conjoining of an extensive exercise in diairesis with a sudden outbreak of myth, indeed of “a large part of a big myth” (268e). Whereas in most other dialogues the mythical elements are integrated into the discourse as a whole, extending it, exemplifying it, or even undermining it, in the Statesman the Stranger finally confesses that they have “raised up an amazing bulk of the myth” (277c). In the end it even remains undecidable whether the dialectical exercise is undertaken in order to determine what a statesman is or whether the primary purpose of the search for the statesman is to gain further expertise in dialectics.
Thus, seen from a distance, the Statesman may well appear to fall short of the superb artistry and philosophical decisiveness of most other dialogues, including those to which it is dramatically linked. And yet, neither this dialogue nor any other is to be seen only from a distance, only in its most general features. Rather, it is imperative that one enter into the dialogue, taking it up in a manner so intimate and painstaking that one becomes virtually another voice in the conversation. Only then, as one winds one’s way through the labyrinth of words and deeds, will the appearance that the dialogue had from afar dissipate to reveal another in which the manifestive force of the dialogue comes to light.
The essays in the present collection set out to span the distance that otherwise sets all accounts apart from the dialogue, the distance that has been installed by philosophical preconceptions concerning so-called Platonism and by interpretations and translations that remain insensitive to the Platonic texts and aloof from their singular pathways. The ideal that animates the present essays is to enter into the Statesman in a way that opens from the dialogue itself.
To enter into a dialogue in this manner requires that one acknowledge from the outset the distinctive character exemplified by all the Platonic texts. Most imperative of all is that one be attentive to the dramatic form of the dialogues; for the formal features of a dialogue—for example, as in the Statesman , the conjoining of seemingly disparate discourses—are never simply imposed irrespective of content. Rather, as Schleiermacher saw with keen penetration, the form and the content of a dialogue are inseparable. Thus it is that one must take into account not only what is said in a dialogue but also how it is said, in what kind of discourse; it is likewise necessary to consider by whom and to whom it is said, as well as when and where it is said. What Socrates says in his contention with Thrasymachus on the occasion of the goddess’ festival in the Piraeus cannot simply be set alongside what he says to his closest friends while in his prison awaiting his death. In neither instance is it a matter simply of what is said, of a series of assertions with a theoretical content that can be taken quite apart from the context.
In order to enter into a dialogue, account must be taken not only of contextual elements but also of discursive factors. In the dialogues there are linear sequences as well as geometrical figures to which the word ἀπόδειξις can be—and often is—applied. Reticence is called for, however, as one proceeds to transpose the word into a modern language or to offer a paraphrase circumscribing its sense. If, in a discourse governed by this word, such terms as demonstration, proof, or argument are to be applied, then there is need to signal that their sense is to be construed within the compass of Platonic discourse—in other words, that their modern sense is not to be assumed. Only the utmost confusion can result if concepts that were determined only later and indeed on the basis of Platonic determinations—concepts such as those forged in Aristotle’s “logical” works—are simply and uncritically projected back upon the Platonic texts.
If both the contextual and the discursive forms belonging to a dialogue are taken into account, then some insight can be gained into its capacity to make manifest what is at issue in the dialogue; one can get a glimpse of how the various elements of a dialogue concur so as to bring a certain configuration of concerns to light, so as to let it shine forth. What is required is that one be attentively receptive, patiently responsive, not that one merely circumscribe a series of alleged assertions to be attached then to a proper name. In particular, discretion prescribes that one forego attributing such alleged assertions to the author Plato. For Plato, remaining withdrawn from every dialogical scene, assigns no speeches to himself; never can it with justification be said with respect to any assertion that “Plato says that …” Rather, Plato maintains the reserve of the writer and practices a kind of graphic ventriloquy.
These are, then, some of the requirements—the attentiveness, reticence, discretion—to which the papers in the present collection seek to respond in entering into the Statesman . Yet, there are also certain exceptional features of this particular dialogue that, in their distinctive way of being brought together, contribute to its singularity.
One such feature is the proximity of the conversation to the trial and execution of Socrates. When on the previous day the conversation in the Theaetetus ends with Socrates going off to the portico of the King Archon to hear the charges being brought against him, the entire train of events leading to his death is set in motion. Thus, when the conversation in the Statesman takes place, it has already been decided that Socrates will go to trial. Throughout the dialogue there are significant allusions to the coming events, allusions that give certain passages in the discourse a subt