[Download] "Philosophy as Ag么n" by Robert Metcalf " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Philosophy as Ag么n
- Author : Robert Metcalf
- Release Date : January 15, 2018
- Genre: Philosophy,Books,Nonfiction,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 1309 KB
Description
In Philosophy as Ag么n: A Study of Plato’s Gorgias and Related Texts, Robert Metcalf offers a fresh interpretation of Plato’s dialogues as dramatic texts whose philosophy is not so much a matter of doctrine as it is a dynamic, nondogmatic, and open-ended practice of engaging others in agonistic dialogue.
Metcalf challenges prevailing interpretations according to which the ag么n (contest or struggle) between the interlocutors in the dialogues is inessential to Plato’s philosophical purpose, or simply a reflection of the cultural background of ancient Greek life. Instead, he argues that Plato understands philosophy as essentially agonistic—involving the adversarial engagement of others in dialogue such that one’s integrity is put to the test through this engagement, and where the ag么n is structured so as to draw adversaries together in agreement about the matters at issue, though that agreement is always open to future contest.
Based on a careful reading of the Gorgias and related Socratic dialogues, such as Apology and Theaetetus, Metcalf contends that ag么n is indispensable to the critique of prevailing opinions, to the transformation of the interlocutor through shame-inducing refutation, and to philosophy as a lifelong training (ask锚sis) of oneself in relation to others.