Conferences and Events

If you are fortunate enough to be in Athens on March 4!!

Professor Alex Long (University of St Andrews)

Abstract: Plato’s Phaedrus is widely regarded as the first expression in the Greek and Roman traditions of the view that literary compositions should possess ‘organic’ unity. And yet it is an apparently disjointed work, and the question of its own unity is a long-standing puzzle. The paper argues that there is a function shared by each part of the dialogue: illustrating and defending an indirect approach to protreptic (that is, the conversion of another person to philosophy), where the protreptic is left unannounced and exploits the other person’s pre-existing interests. The dialogue thus defends the distinctive approach to protreptic taken in Plato’s dialogues more generally.

Lecture handout notes are available here

Professor Alex Long (University of St Andrews)

Abstract: Plato’s Timaeus and Critias offer a puzzling combination of cosmology and the political quasi-history of ancient Athens and Atlantis. Previous discussions have taken Plato’s aim to be naturalizing the political theory or likening political lawgivers to the creator of the world. Alex Long argues that the relation should be seen as a contrast: the natural world provides direct empirical access to an everlasting educative model, whereas in the political sphere such models are typically unavailable. Plato’s aim in combining the two stories is not to lend support to his political claims, or to present an aggrandizing view of legislation as similar to the creation of the world, but to show the possibility of proper moral development in a flawed political environment.

Lecture handout notes are available here