« Middle Platonist Ethics: An End Without Perfection »
Résumé
The idea of perfectibility is closely bound up with ideas of happiness and virtue in many discussions of ancient Greek ethics: but, inspired especially by Plato’s Phaedrus, some of his later followers came to think that ‘perfection’ was impossible for a human being, and in general for any ethical agent. This presentation looks at one example of the tendency within ‘Middle Platonism’, Alcinous, and considers how the idea reshapes the practice of philosophical ethics.
Lectures recommandées :
commentaries
• Hermeias, On Plato’s Phaedo. (Extract on the chariot supplied from the English translation.)
• Hackforth, R. 1952. Plato’s Phaedrus. Cambridge. (Extract on 246a-249d supplied.)
Lectures complémentaires :
more commentaries (extracts on 246a-249d supplied.)
• De Vries, G. J. 1969. A Commentary on the Phaedrus of Plato. Amsterdam.
• Heitsch, E. 1997. Platon, Phaidros. 2nd edn. Göttingen.
• Rowe, C. J. 1986. Plato: Phaedrus. Warminster.
• Yunis, H. 2011. Plato, Phaedrus. Cambridge.
studies
• Barney, R. 2016. “What Kind of Theory is the Theory of the Tripartite Soul?” Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 31: 53-83.
• Helmig, C. 2012. Forms and Concepts. Concept Formation in the Platonic Tradition. Berlin / New York.: pp. 65-71.
• Lorenz, H. 2012. “The Cognition of Appetite in Plato’s Timaeus.: In: Plato and the Divided Self, ed. R. Barney, T. Brennan, & C. Brittain, 238-58. Cambridge.
• Moss, J. (2023). “Against Bare Urges and Good-Independent Desires: Appetites in Republic IV.” In: Psychology and Value in Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic Philosophy, ed. F. Leigh and M. Hampson, 67-81. Oxford.
• Sheffield, F. 2012. “Erôs Before and After Tripartition.” In: Plato and the Divided Self, ed. R. Barney, T. Brennan, & C. Brittain, 211-37. Cambridge.
• Tsouna, V. 2012. “Is There an Answer to Socrates’ Puzzle? Individuality, Universality, and the Self in Plato’s Phaedrus.” Philosophie Antique 12: 199-235.