Plato and the Divided Self

Description

Plato's account of the tripartite soul is a memorable feature of dialogues like the Republic, Phaedrus and Timaeus: it is one of his most famous and influential yet least understood theories. It presents human nature as both essentially multiple and diverse - and yet somehow also one - divided into a fully human 'rational' part, a lion-like 'spirited part' and an 'appetitive' part likened to a many-headed beast. How these parts interact, how exactly each shapes our agency and how they are affected by phenomena like eros and education is complicated and controversial. The essays in this book investigate how the theory evolves over the whole of Plato's work, including the Republic, Phaedrus and Timaeus, and how it was developed further by important Platonists such as Galen, Plutarch and Plotinus. They will be of interest to a wide audience in philosophy and classics.

Rachel Barney holds the Canada Research Chair in Classical Philosophy at the University of Toronto. She is the author of Names and Nature in Plato's Cratylus (2001). Tad Brennan is Professor of Philosophy and Classics at Cornell University. His books include Ethics and Epistemology in Sextus Empiricus (1999), The Stoic Life (2005) and Simplicius on Epictetus, Volumes 1 and 2 (2002), translated with Charles Brittain. Charles Brittain is Professor of Classics and Philosophy at Cornell University. His books include Philo of Larissa: The Last of the Academic Sceptics (2001) and Cicero: On Academic Scepticism (2006).

'This volume represents an invaluable contribution to the field of Platonic moral psychology. The essays it contains are filled with fresh ideas, insights, and challenges, and they are sure to stimulate new debates in the ongoing scholarly discussion of Plato's views on the soul.' Joshua Wilburn, Philosophy in Review