Plato's Promise

Plato's Promise PDF Author: James G. Tauber
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1450233430
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
Long ago, the duck Plato made a promise to his dying father. Now a wise old duck at the twilight of his life, Plato is haunted by his failure to keep his word and is determined to right the wrong before its too late. Injustice exists in the woodlot where Plato lives. As resentment builds among the crows confined to a pine grove in decline, it appears that a war among all the birds is imminent. Antus, a renegade crow, is determined to destroy the fragile peace, with the hopes of capitalizing on the resulting hostilities. Meanwhile, a young duck named Hardy becomes friends with two crows, Nestor and Justine; the small group joins forces with Plato in an attempt to prevent a tragic conflict. As Antus raids the woodlot and leads the birds closer to war, the young birds must overcome the prejudices of their elders. All the while, Plato worries there will be endless suffering if he is not able to fulfill his pledge to his father. Plato and his friends fear their idyllic life in the woodlot may be destroyed, and they will stop at nothing to resolve the injustice and establish an honorable society.

Plato's Promise

Plato's Promise PDF Author: James G. Tauber
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1450233430
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Get Book Here

Book Description
Long ago, the duck Plato made a promise to his dying father. Now a wise old duck at the twilight of his life, Plato is haunted by his failure to keep his word and is determined to right the wrong before its too late. Injustice exists in the woodlot where Plato lives. As resentment builds among the crows confined to a pine grove in decline, it appears that a war among all the birds is imminent. Antus, a renegade crow, is determined to destroy the fragile peace, with the hopes of capitalizing on the resulting hostilities. Meanwhile, a young duck named Hardy becomes friends with two crows, Nestor and Justine; the small group joins forces with Plato in an attempt to prevent a tragic conflict. As Antus raids the woodlot and leads the birds closer to war, the young birds must overcome the prejudices of their elders. All the while, Plato worries there will be endless suffering if he is not able to fulfill his pledge to his father. Plato and his friends fear their idyllic life in the woodlot may be destroyed, and they will stop at nothing to resolve the injustice and establish an honorable society.

Selected Papers

Selected Papers PDF Author: Harold Fredrik Cherniss
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004052352
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 596

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Book Description


Plato's Fable

Plato's Fable PDF Author: Joshua Mitchell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400827175
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
This book is an exploration of Plato's Republic that bypasses arcane scholarly debates. Plato's Fable provides refreshing insight into what, in Plato's view, is the central problem of life: the mortal propensity to adopt defective ways of answering the question of how to live well. How, in light of these tendencies, can humankind be saved? Joshua Mitchell discusses the question in unprecedented depth by examining one of the great books of Western civilization. He draws us beyond the ancients/moderns debate, and beyond the notion that Plato's Republic is best understood as shedding light on the promise of discursive democracy. Instead, Mitchell argues, the question that ought to preoccupy us today is neither "reason" nor "discourse," but rather "imitation." To what extent is man first and foremost an "imitative" being? This, Mitchell asserts, is the subtext of the great political and foreign policy debates of our times. Plato's Fable is not simply a work of textual exegesis. It is an attempt to move debates within political theory beyond their current location. Mitchell recovers insights about the depth of the problem of mortal imitation from Plato's magnificent work, and seeks to explicate the meaning of Plato's central claim--that "only philosophy can save us."

Plato's "Letters"

Plato's Author: Plato
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501772910
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
In Plato's "Letters", Ariel Helfer provides to readers, for the first time, a highly literal translation of the Letters, complete with extensive notes on historical context and issues of manuscript transmission. His analysis presents a necessary perspective for readers who wish to study Plato's Letters as a work of Platonic philosophy. Centuries of debate over the provenance and significance of Plato's Letters have led to the common view that the Letters is a motley collection of jewels and scraps from within and without Plato's literary estate. In a series of original essays, Helfer describes how the Letters was written as a single work, composed with a unity of purpose and a coherent teaching, marked throughout by Plato's artfulness and insight and intended to occupy an important place in the Platonic corpus. Viewed in this light, the Letters is like an unusual epistolary novel, a manner of semifictional and semiautobiographical literary-philosophic experiment, in which Plato sought to provide his most demanding readers with guidance in thinking more deeply about the meaning of his own career as a philosopher, writer, and political advisor. Plato's "Letters" not only defends what Helfer calls the "literary unity thesis" by reviewing the scholarly history pertaining to the Platonic letters but also brings out the political philosophic lessons revealed in the Letters. As a result, Plato's "Letters" recovers and rehabilitates what has been until now a minority view concerning the Letters, according to which this misunderstood Platonic text will be of tremendous new importance for the study of Platonic political philosophy.

The Unity of Plato's 'Gorgias'

The Unity of Plato's 'Gorgias' PDF Author: Devin Stauffer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521858472
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
This book demonstrates the complex unity of Plato's Gorgias, showing how seemingly disparate themes are woven together.

Plato's 'Republic': An Introduction

Plato's 'Republic': An Introduction PDF Author: Sean McAleer
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 1800640560
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
It is an excellent book – highly intelligent, interesting and original. Expressing high philosophy in a readable form without trivialising it is a very difficult task and McAleer manages the task admirably. Plato is, yet again, intensely topical in the chaotic and confused world in which we are now living. Philip Allott, Professor Emeritus of International Public Law at Cambridge University This book is a lucid and accessible companion to Plato’s Republic, throwing light upon the text’s arguments and main themes, placing them in the wider context of the text’s structure. In its illumination of the philosophical ideas underpinning the work, it provides readers with an understanding and appreciation of the complexity and literary artistry of Plato’s Republic. McAleer not only unpacks the key overarching questions of the text – What is justice? And Is a just life happier than an unjust life? – but also highlights some fascinating, overlooked passages which contribute to our understanding of Plato’s philosophical thought. Plato’s 'Republic': An Introduction offers a rigorous and thought-provoking analysis of the text, helping readers navigate one of the world’s most influential works of philosophy and political theory. With its approachable tone and clear presentation, it constitutes a welcome contribution to the field, and will be an indispensable resource for philosophy students and teachers, as well as general readers new to, or returning to, the text.

Plato's Epistles

Plato's Epistles PDF Author: Plato
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Greek letters
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description


Plato's Introduction to the Question of Justice

Plato's Introduction to the Question of Justice PDF Author: Devin Stauffer
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791447468
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
Plato's Introduction to the Question of Justice uncovers the heart of the Platonic analysis of justice by focusing on the crucial opening sections of the Republic. Stauffer argues that the dialectical confrontations with ordinary opinion presented in these sections provide the basis for Plato's view of justice, and that they also help to show how Plato's thought remains relevant today, especially as a rival to Kantianism.

Levels of Argument

Levels of Argument PDF Author: Dominic Scott
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199249644
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
In Levels of Argument, Dominic Scott compares the Republic and Nicomachean Ethics from a methodological perspective. In the first half he argues that the Republic distinguishes between two levels of argument in the defence of justice, the 'longer' and 'shorter' routes. The longer is the ideal and aims at maximum precision, requiring knowledge of the Forms and a definition of the Good. The shorter route is less precise, employing hypotheses, analogies and empirical observation. This is the route that Socrates actually follows in the Republic, because it is appropriate to the level of his audience and can stand on its own feet as a plausible defence of justice. In the second half of the book, Scott turns to the Nicomachean Ethics. Scott argues that, even though Aristotle rejects a universal Form of the Good, he implicitly recognises the existence of longer and shorter routes, analogous to those distinguished in the Republic. The longer route would require a comprehensive theoretical worldview, incorporating elements from Aristotle's metaphysics, physics, psychology, and biology. But Aristotle steers his audience away from such an approach as being a distraction from the essentially practical goals of political science. Unnecessary for good decision-making, it is not even an ideal. In sum, Platonic and Aristotelian methodologies both converge and diverge. Both distinguish analogously similar levels of argument, and it is the shorter route that both philosophers actually follow--Plato because he thinks it will have to suffice, Aristotle because he thinks that there is no need to go beyond it.

Plato on the Limits of Human Life

Plato on the Limits of Human Life PDF Author: Sara Brill
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253008913
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
“A book that is an ambitious, well-researched and provocative scholarly reflection on soul in the Platonic corpus.” —Polis By focusing on the immortal character of the soul in key Platonic dialogues, Sara Brill shows how Plato thought of the soul as remarkably flexible, complex, and indicative of the inner workings of political life and institutions. As she explores the character of the soul, Brill reveals the corrective function that law and myth serve. If the soul is limitless, she claims, then the city must serve a regulatory or prosthetic function and prop up good political institutions against the threat of the soul’s excess. Brill’s sensitivity to dramatic elements and discursive strategies in Plato’s dialogues illuminates the intimate connection between city and soul. “Sara Brill takes on at least two significant issues in Platonic scholarship: the nature of the soul, and especially the language of immortality in its description, and the relationship between politics and psychology. She treats each one of these topics in a fresh and nuanced way. Her writing is beautiful and fluid.” —Marina McCoy, Boston College