A Companion to Plato Edited by Hugh H. Benson A Companion to Plato Blackwell Companions to Philosophy This outstanding student reference series offers a comprehensive and authoritative survey of philosophy as a whole. Written by today’s leading philosophers, each volume provides lucid and engaging coverage of the key figures, terms, topics, and problems of the field. Taken together, the volumes provide the ideal basis for course use, representing an unparalleled work of refer- ence for students and specialists alike. Already published in the series: 20 A Companion to Analytic Philosophy 1 The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy, Edited by A. P. 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Shook and Joseph Margolis Iris Marion Young 33 A Companion to Nietzsche 14 A Companion to Cognitive Science Edited by Keith Ansell Pearson Edited by William Bechtel and George Graham 34 A Companion to Socrates 15 A Companion to Bioethics Edited by Sara Ahbel-Rappe and Edited by Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer Rachana Kamtekar 16 A Companion to the Philosophers 35 A Companion to Phenomenology and Edited by Robert L. Arrington Existentialism 17 A Companion to Business Ethics Edited by Hubert L. Dreyfus and Edited by Robert E. Frederick Mark A. Wrathall 18 A Companion to the Philosophy of Science 36 A Companion to Plato Edited by W. H. Newton-Smith Edited by Hugh H. Benson 19 A Companion to Environmental Philosophy 37 A Companion to Kant Edited by Dale Jamieson Edited by Graham Bird A Companion to Plato Edited by Hugh H. Benson © 2006 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd except for editorial material and organization © 2006 by Hugh H. Benson BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Hugh H. Benson to be identified as the Author of the Editorial Material in this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2006 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1 2006 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A companion to Plato / edited by Hugh H. Benson. p. cm. — (Blackwell companions to philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-1521-6 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-1521-1 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Plato. I. Benson, Hugh H., 1956– II. Series. B395.C64 2006 184—dc22 2005034699 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10/12.5pt Photina by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed and bound in Singapore by Markano Print Media Pte Ltd The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: www.blackwellpublishing.com Contents Notes on Contributors viii Preface xii Abbreviations xiv 1 The Life of Plato of Athens 1 DEBRA NAILS 2 Interpreting Plato 13 CHRISTOPHER ROWE 3 The Socratic Problem 25 WILLIAM J. PRIOR Part I PLATONIC METHOD AND THE DIALOGUE FORM 37 4 Form and the Platonic Dialogues 39 MARY MARGARET MCCABE 5 The Socratic Elenchus 55 CHARLES M. YOUNG 6 Platonic Definitions and Forms 70 R. M. DANCY 7 Plato’s Method of Dialectic 85 HUGH H. BENSON Part II PLATONIC EPISTEMOLOGY 101 8 Socratic Ignorance 103 GARETH B. MATTHEWS 9 Plato on Recollection 119 CHARLES KAHN v contents 10 Plato: A Theory of Perception or a Nod to Sensation? 133 DEBORAH K. W. MODRAK 11 Knowledge and the Forms in Plato 146 MICHAEL FEREJOHN Part III PLATONIC METAPHYSICS 163 12 The Forms and the Sciences in Socrates and Plato 165 TERRY PENNER 13 Problems for Forms 184 MARY LOUISE GILL 14 The Role of Cosmology in Plato’s Philosophy 199 CYNTHIA FREELAND 15 Plato on Language 214 DAVID SEDLEY 16 Plato and Mathematics 228 MICHAEL J. WHITE 17 Platonic Religion 244 MARK L. MCPHERRAN Part IV PLATONIC PSYCHOLOGY 261 18 The Socratic Paradoxes 263 THOMAS C. BRICKHOUSE and NICHOLAS D. SMITH 19 The Platonic Soul 278 FRED D. MILLER, JR. 20 Plato on Eros and Friendship 294 C. D. C. REEVE 21 Plato on Pleasure as the Human Good 308 GERASIMOS SANTAS Part V PLATONIC ETHICS, POLITICS, AND AESTHETICS 323 22 The Unity of the Virtues 325 DANIEL DEVEREUX 23 Plato on Justice 341 DAVID KEYT 24 Plato’s Concept of Goodness 356 NICHOLAS WHITE 25 Plato on the Law 373 SUSAN SAUVÉ MEYER vi contents 26 Plato and the Arts 388 CHRISTOPHER JANAWAY Part VI PLATONIC LEGACY 401 27 Learning about Plato from Aristotle 403 CHRISTOPHER SHIELDS 28 Plato and Hellenistic Philosophy 418 A. A. LONG 29 Plato’s Influence on Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Philosophy 434 SARA AHBEL-RAPPE Index 452 vii Notes on Contributors Sara Ahbel-Rappe is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of Reading Neoplatonism (2000) and the co-editor of The Blackwell Companion to Socrates (Blackwell, 2006). Hugh H. Benson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oklahoma, and was a Samuel Roberts Noble Presidential Professor from 2000 to 2004. He is the editor of Essays on the Philosophy of Socrates (1992) and author of Socratic Wisdom (2000) as well as various articles on the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Thomas C. Brickhouse is a Professor of Philosophy at Lynchburg College and the co-author (with N. D. Smith) of four books and numerous articles on the philosophy of Socrates. He has also written on Plato and Aristotle. R. M. Dancy is Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. He is the author of Sense and Contradiction: A Study in Aristotle (1975), Two Studies in the Early Academy (1991), Plato’s Introduction of Forms (2004), and editor of Kant and Critique (1993). Daniel Devereux is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia. He is the author of articles on the philosophy of Socrates, Plato’s ethics and metaphysics, and Aristotle’s ethics and theory of substance. He contributed a chapter, “Plato: Metaphysics,” to The Blackwell Guide to Ancient Philosophy (2003). His most recent work has focused on the development of Plato’s ethics. Michael Ferejohn is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. He has held visiting positions at the University of Pittsburgh and Tufts University and a Mellon Faculty Fellowship at Harvard University. Ferejohn is the author of The Origins of Aristotelian Science (1991) as well as numerous articles on early Platonic ethics and metaphysics, and Aristotelian metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of science. He is currently working on a book on the place of definition in ancient epistemology. Cynthia Freeland is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Houston. She has written articles on ancient philosophy and is the editor of Feminist Interpretations of Aristotle (1998). She also works in aesthetics, where her books include Philosophy and Film (co-edited with Thomas Wartenberg, 1995), The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror (1999), and But Is It Art? (2001). viii notes on contributors Mary Louise Gill is Professor of Philosophy and Classics at Brown University. She is the author of “Method and metaphysics in Plato’s Sophist and Statesman” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2005), Aristotle on Substance: The Paradox of Unity (1989), and Plato: Parmenides, Introduction and co-translation (1996).