This article updates “The State of the Question in the Study of Plato” (Southern Journal of Philosophy, 1996) based on research covering the years from 1995–2015. Its three major parts examine: (1) how the mid‐twentieth‐century consensus has fared, (2) whether the new trends identified in that article have continued, and (3) identify trends either new or missed in the original article. On the whole, it shows the continuing decline of dogmatic and nondramatic Plato interpretation and the expansion and ramification of (...) the more literary, dramatic, and nondogmatic “new Platonism.” What was a growing insurgency twenty years ago can now be described as a, if not the, dominant approach. (shrink)

Plato's Republic critiques Athenian democracy as practised during the Peloponnesian War years. The diseased city Socrates attempts to purge mirrors Athens in crucial particulars, and his proposals should be evaluated as counter-weights to existing institutions and practices, not as absolutes to be instantiated. Plato's assessment of the Athenian polity incorporates two strategies -- one rhetorical, the other argumentative -- both of which I address. Failure to consider Athens a catalyst for Socrates' arguments has led to the misconception that Plato was (...) dogmatically committed to a single political doctrine for all and for all time. (shrink)

Los hechos narrados en el Banquete de Platón tienen lugar en el año 416 a.C. Situado en el año siguiente, Tucídides destaca un aspecto puntual de la personalidad del Alcibíades histórico: sus supuestas aspiraciones tiránicas. ¿Existe alguna manera de vincular al amante del Banquete con el proto tirano de Tucídides? En el presente trabajo proponemos que la clave para explicar la complejidad del Alcibíades de Banquete radica en la descripción del alma del hombre-tiránico de República VIII-IX. Para ello, en primer (...) lugar haremos una semblanza del célebre general ateniense según los testimonios de Tucídides y Plutarco; en segundo lugar, expondremos las características del alma tiránica tal como es descripta en República; finalmente, integraremos todos estos elementos a fin de interpretar las palabras de Alcibíades en el Banquete, intentando mostrar cómo Platón deja entrever allí, sutilmente, las características tiránicas o proto tiránicas de su alma. (shrink)

Review of Fine G..Тhe Oxford Handbook of Plato.Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Introducción al pensamiento ético de Platón.

The following books have been received, and many of them are available for review. Interested reviewers please contact the reviews editor: jim.oshea@ucd. Ablondi, F., Gerauld de Cordemoy: Atomist,...