Thinking of Death in Plato's Euthydemus - A Close Reading and New Translation (Hardcover)

Thinking of Death places Plato's Euthydemus among the dialogues that surround the trial and death of Socrates. A premonition of philosophy's fate arrives in the form of Socrates' encounter with the two-headed sophist pair, Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, who appear as if they are the ghost of the Socrates of Aristophanes' Thinkery. The pair vacillate between choral ode and rhapsody, as Plato vacillates between referring to them in the dual and plural number in Greek. Gwenda-lin Grewal's close reading explores how the structure of the dialogue and the pair's back-and-forth arguments bear a striking resemblance to thinking itself: in its immersive remove from reality, thinking simulates death even as it cannot conceive of its possibility. Euthydemus and Dionysodorus take this to an extreme, and so emerge as the philosophical dream and sophistic nightmare of being disembodied from substance. The Euthydemus is haunted by philosophy's tenuous relationship to political life. This is played out in the narration through Crito's implied criticism of Socrates-the phantom image of the Athenian laws-and in the drama itself, which appears to take place in Hades. Thinking of death thus brings with it a lurid parody of the death of thinking: the farce of perfect philosophy that bears the gravity of the city's sophistry. Grewal also provides a new translation of the Euthydemus that pays careful attention to grammatical ambiguities, nuances, and wit in ways that substantially expand the reader's access to the dialogue's mysteries.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	April 2022
Authors:	Gwenda-lin Grewal (Onassis Lecturer in Ancient Greek Thought & Language)
Dimensions:	240 x 160 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	304
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-284957-1
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Literature: texts > Essays, journals, letters & other prose works > Classical, early & medieval Books > Humanities > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Ancient Western philosophy to c 500 > General Books > History > World history > BCE to 500 CE Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Ancient Western philosophy to c 500 > General
LSN:	0-19-284957-3
Barcode:	9780192849571

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!