Gadamer's rethinking of the interconnection of theory and practice can lead to a resolution of the debate in contemporary Aristotelian scholarship regarding the priority of theory or practice in Aristotle's Ethics. This is especially true in light of Aristotle's treatment of friendship which, as I will try to show, provides support for Gadamer's claim. In Aristotle's notion of friendship, theory and practice come together, and the activity of friendship is for Aristotle the highest expression of human life precisely because true (...) friendship requires the unity of theory and practice. I argue that Aristotle's sense of , contemplation, his sense of ultimate happiness that is constituted by the life of theory, is conceived by Aristotle in a thoroughly practical and political sense. Specifically I claim that the practice of theory is the politics of friendship. (shrink)

Turnbull offers a close and detailed reading of the Parmenides, using his interpretation to illuminate Plato's major late dialogues. The picture presented of Plato's later philosophy is plausible, highly interesting, and original.

This study examines Plato's dialogue on the good life and argues, most centrally, that the "pleasures of learning" exemplify, for Socrates, the possibility of good becoming or change.

In his article in a recent issue of the Classical Quarterly Mr. G. M. A.Grube attempts to vindicate the authenticity of the Hippias Maior, concentrating his attention upon an article by me as ‘embodying most of the objections of earlier scholars’ against the genuineness of the dialogue. I believe that I am still ‘the latest exponent,’ in any detail, of this view; but I may claim at least some good company in the heresy, and to the names already cited by (...) Mr. Grube or myself may be added in particular that of Wilamowitz, who also believes the Hippias Maior to have been written in the Academy within Plato's lifetime. I was not aware when writing my previous article of this noteworthy support in a work just then appearing. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe aim of this article is twofold: first, to show that, in Plato'sHippias Major,Hippias is the mouthpiece of a materialist ontology; second, to discuss the critique of this ontology. My argument is based on an interpretation ofHippias Major300b4–301e3. I begin by revealing the shortcomings of P. Woodruff's and I. Ludlam's interpretations. Next, I define the concept of materialism as it was understood in ancient Greece in order to outline the specificity of Hippias' materialism. Finally, I argue that the opposition between (...) the two characters of theHippias Majorrepresents in fact an ontological opposition between two conceptions of what a unity is, i.e., Hippias' elementary corporal unities and Socrates' “formal unity.”. (shrink)

What is the relation between a whole and its parts? The metaphysics of structure and composition is much discussed in modern philosophy; now Verity Harte provides the first sustained examination of Plato's rich but neglected discussion of the topic, and shows how it can illuminate current debates. This book is an invaluable resource both for scholars of Plato and for modern metaphysicians.

Grote's powerful defence of Thrasyllus' canon should have taught us at least not to reject lightly any dialogue which, like the Hippias Maior, is there classed as genuine. The burden of proof lies with those who attack our dialogue. Raeder, Ritter, and Apelt consider it to be genuine, while Ast, Jowett, Horneffer, and Röllig declare against it, as also Gomperz, Zeller, and Lutoslawski.

First published in 1974, J.N. Findlay's classic work on Plato has now been re-issued.

In this revolutionary new study, G.R. Ledger applies the statistical methods of stylometry to a number of ancient authors. By taking as the set of variables the occurrence of particular letters of the alphabet, Ledger comes far closer to being able to identify the works of particular authors than previous stylometric studies based on individual word counts. A preliminary analysis examines the work of several Greek authors of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., and is followed by an extensive, detailed (...) examination of the Platonic corpus. From this, Ledger draws new conclusions about the authenticity of the dubious dialogues and the chronology of the entire corpus. (shrink)

The Oxford Translation of Aristotle was originally published in 12 volumes between 1912 and 1954. It is universally recognized as the standard English version of Aristotle. This revised edition contains the substance of the original Translation, slightly emended in light of recent scholarship three of the original versions have been replaced by new translations and a new and enlarged selection of Fragments has been added. The aim of the translation remains the same: to make the surviving works of Aristotle readily (...) accessible to English speaking readers. (shrink)

Contradicting the long-held belief that Aristotle was the first to discuss individuation systematically, Mary Margaret McCabe argues that Plato was concerned with what makes something a something and that he solved the problem in a ...

Drew A. Hyland, one of Continental philosophy's keenest interpreters of Plato, takes up the question of beauty in three Platonic dialogues, the Hippias Major, Symposium, and Phaedrus. What Plato meant by beauty is not easily characterized, and Hyland's close readings show that Plato ultimately gives up on the possibility of a definition. Plato's failure, however, tells us something important about beauty—that it cannot be reduced to logos. Exploring questions surrounding love, memory, and ideal form, Hyland draws out the connections between (...) beauty, the possibility of philosophy, and philosophical living. This new reading of Plato provides a serious investigation into the meaning of beauty and places it at the very heart of philosophy. (shrink)

This dissertation presents an interpretation of ethical themes in the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, focusing upon Gadamer's interpretations of Plato and Aristotle. ;Chapter One is a reading of Gadamer's earliest book, Platos dialektische Ethik. Gadamer's interpretation of Platonic dialectic prefigures the linguistic and hermeneutic ontology of his own mature thought. From Gadamer's reading of Plato, language emerges as the medium in which things have their being for us. Language, moreover, has a twofold character: it is "eidetic," in that it expresses (...) insights into the natures of things and tries to preserve those insights, and it is "dialogical," in that every such insight has meaning only within a contextual web of other meanings. Human understanding, by this account, is both normative and finite. ;Chapter Two examines Gadamer's early essays on Greek philosophy and Plato's role in Truth and Method. While Gadamer rejects Plato's reification of the eide and his intrumentalist account of language, nevertheless Plato's influence upon Gadamer is preserved in the latter's stress upon dialogue as the warrant of truth, his confidence in the meanings sedimented in language, and his interpretation of the "metaphysics of the beautiful." ;Chapter Three presents Gadamer's reading of Plato's unwritten doctrines and his account of the affinity between the Platonic and Aristotelian notions of the good. The major texts used in this chapter are Gadamer's late essays on Plato and his book The Idea of the Good in Platonic-Aristotelian Philosophy. ;Chapter Four summarizes the ways in which Platonic-Aristotelian themes are integrated into Gadamer's own philosophy. On the basis of this summary, it addresses four questions to Gadamer's ethical writings: How does Gadamer limit the role of philosophical ethics? Why does he see ethos as a more reliable source of moral norms than ethics? What does Gadamer see as the contribution of ethics to practical life? Finally, what does he mean when he describes hermeneutics as itself a kind of ethics or practical philosophy? (shrink)