Socratic and Platonic Political Philosophy: Practicing a Politics of Reading

230 Pages·2014·1.19 MB·English

by  Christopher P. Long

SOCRATIC AND PLATONIC POLITICAL
PHILOSOPHY
Practicing a Politics of Reading
In the Gorgias, Socrates claims to practice the true art of politics, but the
peculiar politics he practices involves cultivating in each individual he
encounters an erotic desire to live a life animated by the ideals of justice,
beauty,andthegood.SocraticandPlatonicPoliticalPhilosophydemonstrates
thatwhatSocratessoughttodowiththoseheencountered,Platonicwriting
attemptstodowithreaders.ChristopherP.Long’sattentivereadingsofthe
Protagoras,Gorgias,Phaedo,Apology,andPhaedrusinviteustocultivatethe
habitsofthinkingandrespondingthatmarkthepracticesofbothSocratic
andPlatonicpolitics.Platonicpoliticalwritingishereexperiencedinanew
wayasthecontoursofapoliticsofreadingemergesinwhichthecommunity
ofreadersiscalledtoconsiderhowacommitmenttospeakingthetruthand
actingtowardjusticecanenrichourlivestogether.
Christopher P. Long is Associate Dean for Graduate and Undergraduate
EducationintheCollegeoftheLiberalArtsandProfessorofPhilosophyand
ClassicsatThePennsylvaniaStateUniversity.Hehaspublishednumerous
articles on ancient Greek philosophy, specifically on Aristotle and Plato;
criticaltheory;twentieth-centurycontinentalphilosophy;andthehistoryof
philosophy.HisarticleshaveappearedinjournalsincludingTheReviewof
Metaphysics, Polis, Epoché, Continental Philosophy Review, the Southern
JournalofPhilosophy,andAncientPhilosophy.HeisauthorofTheEthicsof
Ontology:RethinkinganAristotelianLegacy(2004)andAristotleontheNature
ofTruth(2011).HehasservedontheexecutivecommitteeoftheAncient
Philosophy Society for nine years, including three as codirector. A leader
in the innovative use of digital technologies for academic research and
pedagogy, he is the creator and host of the Digital Dialogue, a podcast
dedicated to cultivating the excellences of dialogueinadigital age.Before
comingtoPennStatein2004,hewasAssistantProfessorofPhilosophyat
theRichardStocktonCollegeinNewJersey.HereceivedhisPhDin1998
fromtheGraduateFacultyattheNewSchoolforSocialResearch.

Socratic and Platonic Political
Philosophy
PRACTICING A POLITICS
OF READING
Christopher P. Long
ThePennsylvaniaStateUniversity
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©ChristopherP.Long2014
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Firstpublished2014
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
AcatalogrecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Long,ChristopherP.(ChristopherPhilip),1969–
Socraticandplatonicpoliticalphilosophy:practicingapoliticsof
reading/ChristopherP.Long.
pages cm
ISBN978-1-107-04035-9(hardback)
1. Politicalscience–Philosophy. 2. Plato–Politicalandsocialviews.
3. Socrates–Politicalandsocialviews. I. Title.
JA71.L65 2014
320.01–dc23 2013043771
ISBN978-1-107-04035-9Hardback
Additionalresourcesforthispublicationavailableathttp://dx.doi.org/10.1017/
9781139628891.cplong
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For my students who, semester after semester, remind
me of the transformative power of philosophical words.

CONTENTS
Overture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pageix
ADialogicalHermeneutic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
TheItinerary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
1 PoliticsasPhilosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
PlatonicPoliticalWriting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
SocraticPoliticalSpeaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2 CrisisofCommunity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
TheProperTime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
CaughtintheMiddle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
SpeakingOne’sOwnVoiceandListeningTogether . . . . . . . 29
JusticeandaSenseofShame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3 AttemptingthePoliticalArt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
DoingThingswithWords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Gorgias:ArticulatingaTrueRhetoric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Polus:TurningtowardtheBest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Callicles:AttemptingaTruePolitics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
ThePoeticsofPlatonicPolitics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4 ThePoliticsofFinitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
TheTopologyofSocraticPolitics:KebesandSimmias. . . . . . 72
ThePathofCertainty:Kebes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
ThePathofJustice:Simmias. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
TheTopographyofPlatonicPolitics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
vii
viii Contents
TheSocraticAffect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
PoliticsasSecondSailing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5 SocraticDisturbances,PlatonicPolitics. . . . . . . . . . . . 98
SocraticDisturbances. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
ACertainKindofWisdom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
DisquietingQuestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
SocraticIdiosyncrasy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
AwakeningtheExcellencesofaPhilosophicalPolitics . . . . . 113
TheTopographyofPlatonicPolitics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
ThePoliticalPlaceandTimeofPhilosophy. . . . . . . . . . . 120
6 ThePoliticsofWriting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
TheEducationofPhaedrus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Enthusiasm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Critique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
EngagedDiscernment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
7 PhilosophyasPolitics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
PlatonicPolitics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
NewPossibilitiesofRelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
ImaginativeResponseAbilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
EroticIdeals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
WorksCited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199