Plato's Lysis

The Lysis is one of Plato's most engaging but also puzzling dialogues, often regarded as a philosophical failure.

Terry Penner (Author), Christopher Rowe (Author)

9780521791304, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 October 2005

384 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.73 kg

"...succeeds admirably in making the case for the philosophical significance of the Lysis, a dialogue which has suffered from dismissal and neglect. ...their book is philosophically provocative and engaging. It will be of vital interest to all scholars of Plato; parts of it will also be of substantial use for philosophers working on moral psychology and, in particular, on love." --Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 11/2006

The Lysis is one of Plato's most engaging but also puzzling dialogues; it has often been regarded, in the modern period, as a philosophical failure. The full philosophical and literary exploration of the dialogue illustrates how it in fact provides a systematic and coherent, if incomplete, account of a special theory about, and special explanation of, human desire and action. Furthermore, it shows how that theory and explanation are fundamental to a whole range of other Platonic dialogues and indeed to the understanding of the corpus as a whole. Part One offers an analysis of, or running commentary on, the dialogue. In Part Two Professors Penner and Rowe examine the philosophical and methodological implications of the argument uncovered by the analysis. The whole is rounded off by an epilogue of the relation between the Lysis and some other Platonic (and Aristotelian) texts.

Preface
Part I. An Analysis of the Lysis: 1. 203AI–207B7: the cast assembles and the main conversation is set up
2. 207B8–210D8 (Socrates and Lysis): do Lysis' parents really love him?
3. 210EI–213C9: Socrates and Menexenus - how does one get a friend?
4. 213DI–216B9: Socrates and Lysis again, then Menexenus - poets and cosmologists on what is friend of what (like of like: or opposite of opposite?)
5. 216CI–221D6: what it is that loves, what it really loves and why
6. 221D6–222B2: the main argument reaches its conclusion
7. 222B3–E7: some further questions from Socrates about the argument, leading to (apparent) impasse
8. 223AI–B8: the dialogue ends - people will say that Socrates and the boys think they are friends, but they haven't been able to discover what 'the friend' is
9. 203AI–207B7 revisited
Part II. The Theory of the Lysis: 10. A rereading of the Lysis: some preliminaries
11. A rereading of the Lysis
12. On seeking the good of others independently of one's own good
and other unfinished business
Epilogue
Translation of the Lysis
Bibliography
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Literary essays [DNF]