A Companion to Socrates

This Companion explores the profound influence of Socrates on the history of Western philosophy and provides an in–depth discussion of the various approaches to his philosophy. Written by an outstanding international team of scholars, the volume covers the whole range of Socratic studies from the ancient world to the present day. The contributors review Socrates’ life and the key philosophical doctrines associated with him, and examine Socrates’ place in the larger philosophical traditions of the Hellenistic world, the Roman Empire, the Arabic world, the Renaissance, and contemporary Europe. They consider interdisciplinary subjects such as Socrates and Nietzsche, Socrates and psychoanalysis, and representations of Socrates in art. This distinctive Companion will help readers to understand the meaning and significance of Socrates across the ages.

Notes on Contributors x Preface xiv Acknowledgments xxiv PART ONE: SOCRATES IN ANTIQUITY Section I: Biography and Sources 1 The Trial and Death of Socrates 5 Debra Nails 2 Socrates and Euripides 21 Christian Wildberg 3 Socrates Among the Sophists 36 Paul Woodruff 4 Socrates the Freethinker 48 Richard Janko 5 How Does Socrates’ Divine Sign Communicate with Him? 63 A. A. Long 6 Socrates, Antisthenes, and the Cynics 75 Susan Prince 7 Xenophon’s Socrates 93 Louis–André Dorion 8 Picturing Socrates 110 Kenneth Lapatin Section II: Plato 9 Socrates in Plato’s Dialogues 159 Christopher Rowe 10 No One Errs Willingly: The Meaning of Socratic Intellectualism 171 Heda Segvic 11 Socratic Love 186 George Rudebusch 12 Socrates and Religious Experience 200 John Bussanich 13 The Politics of Plato’s Socrates 214 Rachana Kamtekar 14 The Examined Life 228 Richard Kraut 15 Socrates: Seeker or Preacher? 243 Roslyn Weiss 16 Socratic Method and Socratic Truth 254 Harold Tarrant Section III: Hellenistic Philosophy 17 Socrates in the Stoa 275 Eric Brown 18 Socrates and Epictetus 285 Tad Brennan 19 Socrates and Skepticism 299 Richard Bett PART TWO: SOCRATES AFTER ANTIQUITY Section IV: From the Medieval Period to Modernity 20 Socrates in Arabic Philosophy 317 Ilai Alon 21 Socrates in the Italian Renaissance 337 James Hankins 22 The Private Life of Socrates in Early Modern France 353 Daniel R. McLean 23 Socrates in Hegel and Others 368 Nicholas White Section V: The Modern Period 24 Kierkegaard’s Socratic Point of View 389 Paul Muench 25 Nietzsche and “The Problem of Socrates” 406 James I. Porter 26 The Socratic Hermeneutics of Heidegger and Gadamer 426 Francisco J. Gonzalez 27 The Socratic Method and Psychoanalysis 442 Jonathan Lear 28 Lacan and Socrates 463 Mark Buchan 29 From Grade School to Law School: Socrates’ Legacy in Education 476 Avi Mintz 30 Socrates’ Definitional Inquiries and the History of Philosophy 493 Hayden W. Ausland Index 511

Sara Ahbel–Rappe is Associate Professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Reading Neoplatonism (2000) and a translation of Damascius’ Doubts and Solutions Concerning First Principles (forthcoming). Rachana Kamtekar is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona.

"Everyone interested in Socrates and his legacy will find something valuable in this book..." Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "A remarkably rich and imaginative collection. Socrates was a philosopher who became a cultural icon; this book, with its massive historical range and its great variety of scholarly approach, does unique justice to his complexity." G.R.F. Ferrari, University of California, Berkeley "This is a stimulating collection that succeeds admirably in conveying the enormous range of responses that the ever puzzling Socrates has inspired through the ages, and continues to inspire. The essays on Plato′s Socrates are fresh and vigorous, and the attention paid to later perspectives (from antiquity to the present, and especially recent centuries) helps make this volume a distinctive and unusually illuminating addition to Socratic studies. It should be a welcome companion to a figure who attracted devoted companions in his lifetime, and legions more ever since." Stephen White, University of Texas at Austin "Technical issues are treated thoroughly and comprehensibly and the state of knowledge on Socrates is comprehensively presented both for today and its historical contexts. Its subject matter will be of interest to non–specialists with a penchant for philosophy, or for the history of thoght, since there is as much of interest here about the influence of Socrates on later periods as there is on the thought of the philosopher himself." Reference Reviews