Socrates' Aspasian Oration

The Play of Philosophy and Politics in Plato'sMenexenus

Bibliographic Data

ID3299067
AuthorsStephen G Salkever (Bryn Mawr College, corresponding author)
Year1993
Volume87
Issue1
Pages133-143
Publication date1993-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2938961
OpenAlexW1979025295
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited13

Plato'sMenexenusis overlooked, perhaps because of the difficulty of gauging its irony. In it, Socrates recites a funeral oration he says he learned from Aspasia, describing events that occurred after the deaths of both Socrates and Pericles' mistress. But the dialogue's ironic complexity is one reason it is a central part of Plato's political philosophy. In both style and substance,Menexenusrejects the heroic account of Athenian democracy proposed by Thucydides' Pericles, separating Athenian citizenship from the quest for immortal glory; its picture of the relationship of philosopher to polis illustrates Plato's conception of the truepolitikosin theStatesman. In both dialogues, philosophic response to politics is neither direct rule nor apolitical withdrawal.Menexenuspresents a Socrates who influences politics indirectly, by recasting Athenian history and thus transforming the terms in which its political alternatives are conceived

Art · Democracy · Epistemology · Glory · Irony · Literature · Political science · Politics · SOCRATES · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Law · Philosophy

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