Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Socratic Ignorance and Platonic Knowledge in the Dialogues of Plato

Socratic Ignorance and Platonic Knowledge in the Dialogues of Plato

Ahbel-Rappe, Sara

Paperback

Series: Suny Western Esoteric Traditions

Philosophy

ISBN10: 1438469268
ISBN13: 9781438469263
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: Jan 2 2019
Pages: 296
Weight: 0.95
Height: 0.80 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English

Argues that Socrates' fundamental role in the dialogues is to guide us toward self-inquiry and self-knowledge.

In this highly original and provocative book, Sara Ahbel-Rappe argues that the Platonic dialogues contain an esoteric Socrates who signifies a profound commitment to self-knowledge and whose appearances in the dialogues are meant to foster the practice of self-inquiry. According to Ahbel-Rappe, the elenchus, or inner examination, and the thesis that virtue is knowledge, are tools for a contemplative practice that teaches us how to investigate the mind and its objects directly. In other words, the Socratic persona of the dialogues represents wisdom, which is distinct from and serves as the larger space in which Platonic knowledge-ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics-is constructed. Ahbel-Rappe offers complete readings of the Apology, Charmides, Alcibiades I, Euthyphro, Lysis, Phaedrus, Theaetetus, and Parmenides, as well as parts of the Republic. Her interpretation challenges two common approaches to the figure of Socrates: the thesis that the dialogues represent an early Plato who later disavows his reliance on Socratic wisdom, and the thesis that Socratic ethics can best be expressed by the construct of eudaimonism or egoism.

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