3.2 Allen's Plato as ―Poetical Philosopher

285 Pages·2014·1.2 MB·English

UC San Diego
UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
Democratic Education in the Works of Plato
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2df2t49r
Author
Barrett, Richard A.
Publication Date
2014

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library
University of California
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO

Democratic Education in the Works of Plato

A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy

in

Political Science

by

Richard A. Barrett

Committee in charge:

Professor Tracy B. Strong, Chair
Professor Page duBois
Professor Fonna Forman
Professor Marcel Hénaff
Professor Gerry Mackie

2014
Copyright
Richard A. Barrett, 2014
All rights reserved.
The Dissertation of Richard A. Barrett is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and
form for publication on microfilm and electronically:

______________________________________________

______________________________________________

______________________________________________
Chair

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
2014

iii
DEDICATION

To those who have shared conversations about our world with me.

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Signature Page……………………………………………………………………...…iii
Dedication……………………………………………………………………………..iv
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………....v
Vita…………………………………………………………………………………....vii
Abstract of the Dissertation.………………………………………………………....viii
Introduction: Plato and the Problem of Democratic Education ..................................... 1
Chapter 1 Reading Plato: Plato and Xenophon as Teachers and Poets ............. 7
1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 7
1.2 Comparison of Apologies ................................................................................ 8
1.3 Plato on the Relationship of Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Poetry to Education 13
1.3.1 The Art (technē) of the Poet and Rhapsode ............................................ 13
1.3.2 The art that is not really an art – Poetry and Rhetoric as a Knack ......... 18
1.3.3 Philosophy as the True Art of Rhetoric .................................................. 20
1.4 True Rhetoric Immortalized: Plato and Xenophon's Writing on Writing ..... 22
1.4.1 Xenophon: Writing that Changes the Reader ........................................ 23
1.4.2 Plato on Writing ..................................................................................... 28
1.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 39
Chapter 2 Pluralism, Politics, and Beauty: Harmonizing Conflict through
Orientation toward To Kalon in Plato's Protagoras ........................ 41
2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 41
2.2 The Relationship between the Good and the Kalon ...................................... 45
2.2.1 Socrates Rebuking Protagoras from Beneath a Cloak ............................ 46
2.3 Political Education and the Kalon ................................................................. 53
2.3.1 Preferring the Kalon ............................................................................... 56
2.3.2 Leading Others to Prefer the Kalon ........................................................ 70
2.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 81
Chapter 3 Plato as ―Poetical Philosopher‖: Being, Conversation, and the
Political Art ..................................................................................... 82
3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 82
3.2 Allen's Plato as ―Poetical Philosopher‖ ......................................................... 84
3.3 Images, Truth, and Platonic Understanding of Being .................................... 86
3.3.1 Knowledge, Truth, and Being in the Republic and Meno ...................... 90
3.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 155
Chapter 4 Political Education: The Shaping of Polities in Conversation ..... 159
4.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 159
4.2 The Being of People and the Being of Polities ............................................ 159
v
4.2.1 Regime Change .................................................................................... 163
4.2.2 Guiding Political Change ..................................................................... 164
4.3 Plato Demonstrating the Political Art .......................................................... 166
4.3.1 The Manner of Education ..................................................................... 166
4.3.2 The Shared Quest for Understanding: Creating Being with Others .... 167
4.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 209
Chapter 5 Plato, Democracy, and Education: Human Being and Citizen .... 211
5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 211
5.2 Plato and Democracy ................................................................................... 212
5.2.1 Scholarship on Plato's Relationship with Democracy .......................... 212
5.2.2 Plato's Republic as a Misleading Source of Plato on Democracy ........ 216
5.3 Plato's Account of the Goods Brought Forth by Polities ............................. 220
5.3.1 The Examined Life as a Means of Revealing Oneself ......................... 223
5.3.2 E Pluribus Unum: the Kalon and the Political Good of Harmony ...... 225
5.4 Tyranny, Harmony, and Being .................................................................... 231
5.4.1 Tyranny and Law .................................................................................. 231
5.4.2 Tyranny's Negative Effects................................................................... 235
5.4.3 Logic and Rule of Law to Oppose Opinion (Doxa) and Tyranny ........ 238
5.5 The Goods of Polities and Democracy ........................................................ 245
5.6 The Tyranny of Truth .................................................................................. 248
5.6.1 The Pre-Modern Conception of Truth .................................................. 248
5.6.2 The Shift to Modern Truth ................................................................... 249
5.6.3 The Altered Meaning of Truth and Consequent Alienation ................. 251
5.6.4 Taking Back the Polity as a Place to Reveal Oneself ........................... 259
5.6.5 Plato's Dialogues as Political Space ..................................................... 265
5.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 267
Bibliography ……. ..................................................................................................... 270

vi
VITA
Bachelor of Arts, University of Chicago — 1996

Juris Doctor, Yale Law School — 2002

Master of Arts, University of California, San Diego— 2008

Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego — 2014

vii
ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION
Democratic Education in the Works of Plato

by

Richard A. Barrett

Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science

University of California, San Diego, 2014

Professor Tracy B. Strong, Chair

Understanding Plato's contribution to democratic education means more than
understanding the substance of the conversations he depicts: appreciating how his
characters shape each other with speech and recognizing how Plato similarly employs
his writing to shape readers.
Such reshaping is crucial for political education because, as revealed in
the Protagoras, the key to the political art is guiding others to harmonize their
preferences as individuals with those they hold as citizens. This means uniting their
goods as individuals and the goods of the polity with people's collective understanding
of what is admirable or beautiful (kalos).
A fuller understanding of the polity, and a deeper form of self rule, requires a
viii
more complete understanding of how the world comes to be the way it is. Plato offers
this possibility to his readers by showing the relationship between understanding
knowledge (epistemology) and existence (ontology). People's social interaction
influences the way they make sense of the world, playing a crucial role in what they
take to be—and what is—real. The conversations Plato depicts with Socrates as well
as those he initiates in readers' minds shape reality; Plato himself is a ―philosophical
poet.‖
Examining these conversations more closely makes it possible to see how the
political art is practiced. Socrates begins by understanding how others see the world,
questions their assumptions to open them to a new outlook, and engages them in
verbal give and take to help develop a new, or reformed, understanding of the world.
His interlocutors must argue their own opinions and decide issues in common with
him, harmonizing their beliefs.
Plato's support for logical reasoning and truth over traditional rhetoric paves
the way for a more stable polity. Favoring internal consistency in a polity works
against the tyranny of public opinion and makes individuality possible. However,
since Descartes, historical changes have transformed truth, threatening a new form of
tyranny: preventing people from contributing to the polity's being. Plato supplies a
solution within his dialogues, demonstrating how to reshape the world and opening a
new space where people may join as fellow citizens, forming a polity in speech
(logos).

ix