Plato and the Invention of Life

Michael Naas

Published by Fordham University Press 2018

Plato and the Invention of Life

Michael Naas

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780823279708

Overview
Contents

About this book

Beginning with a reading of Plato’s Statesman, this work interrogates the relationship between life and being in Plato’s thought. It argues that in his later dialogues Plato discovers—or invents—a form of true or real life that transcends all merely biological life and everything that is commonly called life.

This book also serves to Introduce a soon-to-be-published seminar by Jacques Derrida, titled "Life-Death," that offers a new side to Derrida's thought.

Author / Editor information

Naas Michael :

Michael Naas is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University in Chicago. His books include The End of the World and Other Teachable Moments: Jacques Derrida's Final Seminar and Miracle and Machine: Jacques Derrida and the Two Sources of Religion, Science, and the Media (both Fordham).Michael Naas is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University in Chicago. His books include The End of the World and Other Teachable Moments: Jacques Derrida's Final Seminar and Miracle and Machine: Jacques Derrida and the Two Sources of Religion, Science, and the Media (both Fordham).

Reviews

Gregg Lambert:
Michael Naas's remarkable account of Plato traces the contemporary line between bios and zōē, which has been an abiding feature of recent discussions of biopolitics, to reveal the original Platonic invention of the division between 'Life itself' and all other forms of living, including eternal life. Perhaps another way of saying this, according to Naas, is that already in Plato there is Platonism, the opposite of Platonism, and the deconstruction of every future Platonism.

Sara Brill:
This book offers a novel, timely, and provocative reading of the pervasive theme of life in Plato and its significance for the history of Western thought. Naas highlights the dialogue that Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, and others have carried on with Plato—offering his own supplements and corrections along the way. The result is a compelling and thought-provoking reading of Plato’s contribution to what is perhaps the most vital and volatile concept in contemporary theoretical discourse.

The significance of the gigantomachia, the battle between Titans and Olympians, for the history of philosophy and contemporary theory is illuminated with exceptional learning and insight in Naas's analysis of Plato's struggle to articulate the relation of the being of the world to the existence of the living.

This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the Statesman, and it is filled with original insights about its importance in the corpus, its connections to other dialogues, and its centrality to a range of Platonic themes not normally associated with it.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. Philosophy’s Gigantomachia over Life and Being Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
chapter 1. The Lifelines of the Statesman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
chapter 2. Life and Spontaneity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
chapter 3. The Shepherd and the Weaver: A Foucauldian Fable Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
chapter 4. The Mea sure of Life and Logos Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	98
chapter 5. Fruits of the Poisonous Tree: Plato and Alcidamas on the Evils of Writing Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
chapter 6. The Life of Law and the Law of Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136
chapter 7. Plato and the Invention of Life Itself Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
Conclusion: Life on the Line Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Fordham University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 288
Keywords: Bare life; Biopower; Jacques Derrida; Life; Myth; Ontology; Plato; Statesmanship

eBook

Published: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 9780823279708