Plato and the Question of Beauty

This book consists of five chapters, only three of which are directly concerned with "the question of beauty" (although no explanation is given of what "the question of beauty" might be). After a brief introduction, Smith (Trinity College) offers chapters on the question of beauty in t! he Hippias Major, the Symposium, and the Phaedrus, respectively. The next chapter discusses the Second and Seventh Letters, and their various expressions of philosophy as something lived, rather than consisting in doctrines or dogma. The final chapter focuses on the critique of rhetoric and writing in Phaedrus. No other works in which beauty is discussed receive sustained attention. Hyland emphasizes the ways in which Plato carefully embeds his discussions in an "existential situation," which includes not only characterization of the participants in the dialogue, but also some dramatically relevant aspect of their actual life circumstances. Written within the Continental tradition of Platonic scholarship, this book fails to engage with most of the considerable scholarship outside of that tradition on the works it does discuss; the entire bibliography of sources cited is only barely over a single page in length. Summing Up: Not recommended. -Choice

Aesthetics · Beauty · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Philosophy · Ancient Greek & Roman philosophy · General · History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical · Phaedrus · Plato

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