Plato and the question of beauty

169 Pages·2008·0.953 MB·English

by  Plato;Aesthetics;Platon;Hyland, Drew A

PHILOSOPHY | CLASSICS & ANTIQUITY
Reveals the intimate connection H
PLATO
Y
L
between beauty and the
A
N
philosophical life D
P
“A well-written and forcefully argued exposition l and the
a
of one of the most important themes in
t
o
Plato’s philosophy.”

a Question
—Walter Brogan, Villanova University
n
d

Drew A. Hyland, one of Continental philosophy’s keenest interpreters of Plato, t
h
takes up the question of beauty in three Platonic dialogues, the Hippias Major, e of
Symposium, and Phaedrus. What Plato meant by beauty is not easily character-
Q
ized, and Hyland’s close readings show that Plato ultimately gives up on the pos- Beauty
u
sibility of a defi nition. Plato’s failure, however, tells us something important
e
about beauty—that it cannot be reduced to logos. Exploring questions surround- s
t
ing love, memory, and ideal form, Hyland draws out the connections between i
o
beauty, the possibility of philosophy, and philosophical living. This new reading
n
of Plato provides a serious investigation into the meaning of beauty and places it
o
at the very heart of philosophy.
f

B
DREW A. HYLAND is Charles A. Dana Professor of Philosophy at Trinity e
a
College. He is editor (with John Panteleimon Manoussakis) of Heidegger and the
u
Greeks (Indiana University Press, 2006).
t
y
Studies in Continental Thought, John Sallis, editor
Cover illustration: © Copyright the Trustees of The British Museum
INDIANA
University Press I
N
D
Bloomington & Indianapolis IA
N
http://iupress.indiana.edu A D R E W A. H Y L A N D
1-800-842-6796
PLATO
and the
Question
of
Beauty
Studies in Continental Thought
John Sallis, editor
Consulting Editors
Robert Bernasconi William L. McBride
Rudolph Bernet J. N. Mohanty
John D. Caputo Mary Rawlinson
David Carr Tom Rockmore
Edward S. Casey Calvin O. Schrag
Hubert Dreyfus †Reiner Schürmann
Don Ihde Charles E. Scott
David Farrell Krell Thomas Sheehan
Lenore Langsdorf Robert Sokolowski
Alphonso Lingis Bruce W. Wilshire
David Wood
PLATO
and the
Question
of
Beau t y
D R E W A . H Y L A N D
Indiana University Press
Bloomington & Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796
Fax orders 812-855-7931
Orders by e-mail [email protected]
∫ 2008 by Drew A. Hyland
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher. The Association of American University Presses’
Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to
this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum re-
quirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materi-
als, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hyland, Drew A.
Plato and the question of beauty / Drew A. Hyland.
p. cm. — (Studies in continental thought)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-253-35138-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-253-21977-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Plato.
2. Aesthetics. 3. Plato. Phaedrus. I. Title.
B398.A4H95 2008
111%.85092—dc22
2007045005
1 2 3 4 5 13 12 11 10 09 08
A book on beauty, one that I would write,
can have only one dedication:
For Anne

Walk in beauty.
Navajo farewell
Beauty is momentary in the mind—
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.
Wallace Stevens, ‘‘Peter Quince at the Clavier’’
But it’s a beautiful thing to strive after the beautiful,
And to su√er whatever we have to su√er along the way.
Plato, Phaedrus, 274b

Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments (cid:2) xi
Introduction (cid:2) 1
1 The Question of Beauty in the Hippias Major (cid:2) 7
2 The Question of Beauty in the Symposium (cid:2) 27
3 The Question of Beauty in the Phaedrus (cid:2) 64
4 The Second and Seventh Letters (cid:2) 91
5 The Critique of Rhetoric and Writing in the Phaedrus (cid:2) 115
Notes (cid:2) 137
Bibliography (cid:2) 145
Index (cid:2) 147