|
| pseudo-plato's
alcibiades |
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1993
From:
"Gary R. Brower"
Subject:
Ps-Plato's Alcibiades I
According
to the OCD, _Alcibiades I_ -- attributed to Plato -- is spurious.
Does anyone have any idea as to a dating for this work?
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1993
From: Dougal Blyth
Re:
Plato's Alcibiades I
Not all would consider it spurious. The main argument is from the
apparent inconsistency between (a) the distinction of body and soul
(and identification of the self with the soul, 130c), and (b) the
stylistic evidence that it is (if Platonic) an early dialogue. But
the basis for the claim that the early dialogues do not recognise
the soul as the true self, separate from the body, rests upon the
stylistic identification of early dialogues; so the argument that
the Alc. I is spurious depends on a petitio principi. It is not in
any case clear to me that any greater separation of soul and body is
envisaged here than in e.g., the Apology or Crito. The relation of
instrumentality between body and soul is asserted more distinctly
than in other 'early' dialogues, although quite in accordance with
the so called 'Socratic Proportion' also found at e.g., Crito
47b-48b, Gorgias 463e-66a, Protagoras 311b-14b. The genuineness of
the dialogue has been defended by Paul Friedlander, and in English
by W.R.M. Lamb (Loeb Plato vol. 10, intro. pp.96-7). See also Vink,
C, *Plato's Eeerste Alcibiades: een onderzoek naar zijn
authenticitiet* (Amsterdam 1939) Robinson, T., *Platonic Psychology*
other refs. available on request. On the dating Lamb says 'the work
is probably one of Plato's earliest sketches, composed in the years
immediately following the death of Socrates...it is natural to
suppose that the series of Plato's compositions would begin with
some immature and relatively inartistic essays in dialogue-writing.'
I am not sure I agree with the aesthetic judgment however: the
comparison of the soul with the eye (132d-133c) does not itself
suffer by comparison with any of Plato's most acclaimed images in
'later' works. |
| Culled
from
classics.log9308a
and
classics.log9308b.
|
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