Soul and Polis: On Arete in Plato's Meno
| dc.contributor.advisor | Warnek, Peter | |
| dc.contributor.author | Smith III, Ansel | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-10-04T19:25:10Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-10-04T19:25:10Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022-10-04 | |
| dc.description.abstract | In “Soul and Polis: On Arete in Plato’s Meno,” I interpret Meno as a dialogue in which the pursuit of individual arete appears intertwined with political arete. While the differentiation of these two arete is itself noteworthy, my analysis also draws out the dialectical tension between the soul and the polis, a tension which is constitutive of the pursuit of the human good. Socrates’ philosophical practice emphasizes the power of the individual to subvert and undermine the claim of the polis on the soul; and yet, Socrates remains beholden to his interlocutors (and Athens), constantly imploring them to share in the search for arete. The mutual dependence of Socrates on his interlocutor and his interlocutors on Socrates bespeaks a surprising interaction between one’s self relation and one’s relation to others. One can neither become a good person in isolation from others nor because of the honor or “good reputation” of others alone. My interpretation of Meno departs from much of the Anglophone scholarship on this text by focusing on the ubiquitous political implicature throughout the dialogue rather than on its epistemological significance. The latter emphasizes Socrates’ account of recollection (ἀνάμνησις) as the decisive textual insight. By contrast, my analysis draws on the intertextual resonance of Ancient Greek sources as a way to draw out Meno’s significance in an ongoing political discourse. My interpretation progresses through Meno linearly, tracking the development of problems concerning arete as they appear in the discussion. Socrates first engages with Meno, inviting him to account for arete, but after Meno fails to satisfy Socrates, Socrates takes it upon himself to persuade Meno to search for arete with a different dialogical comportment than the one Gorgias had inculcated in him. This task draws others into the dialogue as well—a slave/boy (παῖς) and an Athenian statesman named Anytus. By the end of the dialogue, it seems unlikely that Socrates has changed Meno in any meaningful way, but my analysis of Socrates’ engagement with his interlocutors draws out the urgency of Socrates’ concern for arete as a political task. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/27539 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon | |
| dc.rights | All Rights Reserved. | |
| dc.subject | Ancient Greek | en_US |
| dc.subject | Meno | en_US |
| dc.subject | Philosophy | en_US |
| dc.subject | Plato | en_US |
| dc.title | Soul and Polis: On Arete in Plato's Meno | |
| dc.type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Department of Philosophy | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Oregon | |
| thesis.degree.level | doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Ph.D. |
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