How Philosophy Became Socratic
A Study of Plato's "Protagoras", "Charmides" and "Republic"
Plato's dialogues show Socrates at different ages, beginning when he was about nineteen and already deeply immersed in philosophy and ending with his execution five decades later. By presenting his model philosopher across a fifty-year span of his life, Plato leads his readers to wonder: does that time period correspond to the development of Socrates' thought? In this magisterial investigation of the evolution of Socrates' philosophy, Laurence Lampert answers in the affirmative.
The chronological route that Plato maps for us, Lampert argues, reveals the enduring record of philosophy as it took the form that came to dominate the life of the mind in the West. The reader accompanies Socrates as he breaks with the century-old tradition of philosophy, turns to his own path, steadily enters into a deeper understanding of nature and human nature, and discovers the successful way to transmit his wisdom to the wider world. Focusing on the final and most prominent step in that process and offering detailed textual analysis of "Plato's Protagoras, Charmides, and Republic, How Philosophy Became Socratic" charts Socrates' gradual discovery of a proper politics to shelter and advance philosophy.
About the Author
Laurence Lampert is professor emeritus of philosophy at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He is the author of several books, most recently "How Philosophy Became Socratic", also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Reviews
"This is an extraordinary piece of scholarship: in the scale of its interpretive thesis, in the depth and detail of its textual analysis, and in the extent of the author's familiarity with relevant secondary material. Lampert's transdialogical approach allows him to explain otherwise puzzling details and features of these dialogues and establishes a special relationship among them, while at the same time the very coherence of the resulting interpretations of each dialogue offers further validation of his interpretive principle – a kind of virtuous circle. Lampert opens up a whole new dimension of interpretive possibilities to ponder – and argue about – in considering any of Plato's dialogues, not merely those which Lampert addresses. The payoff in attending to Lampert's superb, challenging analysis, which builds item by item, is ample" – Leon H. Craig, University of Alberta
"Laurence Lampert is a truly distinguished scholar whose many books have deepened our understanding of the history of philosophy immeasurably. This new book offers an extraordinarily rich, illuminating, thought-provoking, and original account of 'Protagoras', 'Charmides', and the 'Republic' in particular and of Socrates' thought as a whole. Even – and especially – when one disagrees with this stimulating and daring work, one learns a great deal from it. It is a remarkably ambitious book, one that attempts to put forth an interpretation of Plato's entire corpus and its role in Western civilization" – Peter Ahrensdorf, Davidson College
"Lampert presents a Nietzschean reading of Plato in which a close relationship exists between a philosopher and his social experiences. As such, he offers an imaginative and completely plausible interpretation of three dialogues of Plato, which focuses on the 'dramatic dates' of the works" – Choice
