"I believe myself able to speak about Homer better than any man; and that neither Metrodorus of Lampsacus, nor Stesimbrotus of Thasos, nor Glaucon, nor any one else who ever was, had as good ideas about Homer as I have, or as many."
Plato's main purpose in Ion is to differentiate between gift of true knowledge and gift of shallow speech.
True knowledge is not limited to one artist but must expand beyond mere information about one person's work to an entire brand of study. For example someone who truly appreciate the written word will notice every new book that comes out, will analyze works of many writers and studies literature in depth. This happens because he is naturally attracted to the power of the written word and hence his soul awakens every time someone mentions something exceptional they have read or heard. But the same was not true for Ion whose knowledge was strictly limited to Homer and even on Homer, he was not an authority because while he could give dramatic rendition of Homer's epics, he couldn't possibly analyze the work in depth and had no ability to discuss the real meaning of Homer's philosophies.
Socrates tried to explain to the rhapsode that he was not an expert on Homer or on poetry for that matter, but was only inspired by Homer's work. Some one who is truly blessed with knowledge is not someone who is just inspired by one artist but is interested in the actual power of the force that drove many artists in a given field. However rhapsode in this case was a mere interpreter who had been inspired by one artist as Socrates explained: "The gift which you possess of speaking excellently about Homer is not an art, but, as I was just saying, an inspiration; there is a divinity moving you, like that contained in the stone which Euripides calls a magnet…In like manner the Muse first of all inspires men herself; and from these inspired persons a chain of other persons is suspended, who take the inspiration. For all good...
Plato conceived that there were two great causes of human corruption, viz., bad or ill-directed education, and the corrupt influence of the body on the soul. His ethical discussions, therefore, have for their object, the limiting of the desires, and the cure of the diseases produced by them in the soul; while his political discussions have for their immediate object, the laying down of right principles of education, and enforcing
Socrates' conclusion that the poets and rhapsodes lack knowledge fair? What sort of knowledge does Socrates seem to have in mind? Could there be other kinds? Is Socrates confusing the knowledge necessary to make a work of art with knowledge of what's represented in the artwork? Plato's "Republic" presents a Socratic dialogue in which the main speaker argues that poets and rhapsodes lack knowledge. To a certain degree, this might
The definition of harmony of the fourth book is thus commensurate with the justice of the first book of "The Republic" -- the unity, harmony, and perfection of the ideal forms of the heavens are mirrored in a unified and harmoniously operated state, in the Platonic view as expressed by Socrates. But Socrates, as he speaks to his fellow Athenians in a law-court, making a plea for his life,
Jacques Derrida has been accused of writing in a deliberately obtuse and obfuscated manner, so the relationship between his work and that of Plato's might not be immediately discernible. Perhaps the clearest connection between the two can be derived from Derrida's of Grammatology, especially as it compares to Plato's aesthetics and view of reality. In this rather dense treatise, Derrida first outlines the phenomenon of what he calls logocentrism --
Plato, Marx, And Critical Thought David Richter's book is absolutely indispensable, as it is one of the few anthologies willing to acknowledge the existence of and include well-chosen examples from the long history of critical thought and how it helps us understand what we read, why we read, and what we value. The greatest strength of Richter's work is that it simply starts at the beginning of classical literature and moves forward
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now