Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
A comprehensive new interpretation of Plato's Philebus.
This book offers a comprehensive new interpretation of Plato's dialogue on the best life, the Philebus. Through close attention to the details of the text and consideration of Plato's manner of writing, the book clarifies how the dialogue's many difficult sections form a beautiful whole, thereby bringing out the unity of Plato's thought. It shows how Plato's metaphysics and epistemology support and inform his understanding of the character of the philosophic life and his argument that philosophy is the best way of life. Finally, this book seeks to present the compelling character of Plato's thought—that is, to show that his understanding of the philosophic life deserves to be taken as seriously today as it has ever been.
"Philosophy and the Good is in my view the best treatment of the Philebus yet written. Levy's reading is remarkably clear, original, and bold and accomplishes the impressive feat of making a coherent whole out of this notoriously circuitous and elusive dialogue, the most difficult, to my mind, of Plato's writings." — Robert Barlett, Boston College
"In this complex, subtle, and illuminating account of the Philebus, Levy has made an extremely important contribution to our understanding of Plato and of philosophy as a whole." — Peter Ahrensdorf, Davidson College
"The greatest strength of Philosophy and the Good is its uncompromising commitment to understanding the Socratic life on its own terms and so its unflinching inquiry into the aim of that life, the character of its inquiry, and the nature of its pleasures and pains." — Susan D. Collins, University of Notre Dame
David Levy is a Tutor at St. John's College, Santa Fe. He is the author of Eros and Socratic Political Philosophy.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Preliminary Considerations
1. The Conversation's Context
2. The One and the Many
3. The Mixed Life and the Good
4. The Fourfold Division of Being
Part Two: The Analysis of Pleasure
5. The Problem of Anticipatory Pleasures
6. Pleasure in the Best Life
Part Three: The Analysis of Thought
7. Mathematical Precision
8. Dialectical Truth
Part Four: The Dialogue's Conclusion
9. The Mixture
10. The Good
Notes
Works Cited
Index