How the images in Plato's dialogues develop a life of their own when his poetry trumps his philosophy

313 Pages·2011·12.37 MB·English

by  Jenks, Rod

How TIlE ll\lAGES IN PLATO'S DIALOGUES
DEVELOP A LIFE OF THEIR OWN
How THE 1i\1AGES IN PLATO'S DIALOGUES
DEVEI~OP A LIFE OF THEIR OWN
When His Poetry Trumps His Philosophy
Rod Jenks
With a Preface by
Nicholas D. Smith
The Edwin Mellen Press
LewistoneQueenston" Lampeter
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jenks, Rod.
How the images in Plato's dialogues develop a life oftheir own: when his
poetry tmmps his philosophy! Rod Jenks; with a preface by Nicholas D. Smith.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-3934-4 (hardcover)
ISBN-IO: 0-7734-3934-X (hardcover)
1. Plato. Dialogues. 2. Plato--Literary art. I. Title.
B395.J425 201 I
I 84--dc23
2011028434
hoI's serie.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Front cover: MC Escher lithograph, Drawing Hands, 1948
Copyright © 20 I I Rod Jenks
All rights reserved. For infomlation contact
The Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press
Box 450 Box 67
Lewiston, New York Queenston, Ontario
USA 14092-0450 CANADA LOS I LO
The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd.
Lampeter, Ceredigiol1, Wales
UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT
Printed in the United States of America
This book ;..; dedicated to
My daughters, Olga and Yelena

Table of Contents
Preface by Nicholas D. Smith IX
Foreword XIX
Acknowledgements xxv
1. Madness in the Dialogues 1
A. The Explananda 8
1. The CrUo 8
2. The Profagoras 8
3. The Phaed/'us 9
4. The Theaetefus 9
5. The Republic 9
6. The Daimonion 9
7. The Meno 10
B. The Explanantia 17
C. Schisms in the Phaedrus 29
Conclusion 32
Notes 34
II. Metaphor in the Crito 49
A. The Complexity of Piety in the Euthyphro 51
B. Persuasion and Obedience 52
C. The Scholarship on "Persuade or Obey" 53
D. Defiance Would Amount to Rebellion 61
E. A Rationale for the Metaphor 64
Notes 69
III. The Aleno and its Metaphors 85
A. The Context 87
B. Anamnesis 88
C. Larissa and Daedalus 95
1. The Road to Larissa 95
2. The Statues of Daedalus 97
\,11
D. Divine People 100
Conclusion 105
Notes 108
IV. Some Images in Republic 117
A. Going Down 118
B. Horses and Fire 119
C. Gyges'Ring 124
D. The Myth of the Metals 130
F. Justice "Writ Large" 131
F. The Cave and its Fire 133
G. Decline and Fall 140
H. The Myth of Er 149
Notes 156
V. Suspicious Characters in the Corpus 179
A. The Daimonion 179
B. "The Argument" 191
C. "Protagoras" 192
D. The Charioteer of the Phaedrus 198
E. The Eleatic Stranger 204
Notes 211
VI. Conclusion: The Image and Its Place in
"Tm e Rhetoric" 225
Notes 241
Epilogue 247
Notes 251
Bibliography 253
Indices 273
General Index 273
Index of Proper Names 274
Index Locomm 279
viii
Preface:
Paradoxes of Platonic Imagination
Nicholas D. Smith
Lewis & Clark College
In Book Ten of the Republic, Plato's Socrates seems to
have nothing but scom for image-makers:
Neither will the imitator know, nor opine rightly
concerning the nobility or vulgarity of his
imitations. [ ... J On this issue, then, as it seems, we
clearly agree that the imitator knows nothing worth
mentioning of what he imitates, and that imitation
is not serious ... (602a8-9, b6-8)
A moment's reflection on what Socrates says here is
enough to see what is jarring about it: the character who speaks
these lines is, after all, but an image of the historical figure named
Socrates, and so in the very moment of writing this condemnation
of image-making, it seems that Plato was himself creating the very
sort of thing he sought to revile. What are we to make of this?
In this book, Rod Jenks explores a number of Plato's most
perplexing images, and seeks to explain these both specifically,
but also very generally, within Plato's overall philosophical
program. What Jenks provides, let us be clear, is not primarily a
literary analysis, but a philosophical analysis of Plato's image
making, that is, of Plato's philosophical imagination. Even so,
IX