Socrates and Self-Knowledge in Aristophanes' Clouds
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9665196 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christopher Moore (0000-0003-3149-1140, Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 534-551 |
| Publication date | 2015-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Classical Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0009-8388 • E-ISSN: 1471-6844 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0009838815000257 |
| OpenAlex | W2211628946 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 16 |
| References cited | 17 |
This article argues that Aristophanes' Clouds treats Socrates as distinctly interested in promoting self-knowledge of the sort related to self-improvement. Section I shows that Aristophanes links the precept γνῶθι σαυτόν (‘know yourself’) with Socrates. Section II outlines the meaning of that precept for Socrates. Section III describes Socrates' conversational method in the Clouds as aimed at therapeutic self-revelation. Section IV identifies the patron Cloud deities of Socrates' school as also concerned to bring people to a therapeutic self-understanding, albeit in a different register from that of Socrates. Section V discusses a sequence of jokes connected to ‘stripping’ that give a concrete image to the search for self-knowledge. Both the action of the Clouds and the tales of cloak-stripping provide models for understanding self-knowledge in a Socratic key. Section VI argues that Socrates' other interest in the phrontistērion , myth-rationalization, is consistent with the promotion of self-knowledge. Section VII supports the claim that Plato's Phaedrus alludes constantly to the Clouds , and because the Phaedrus pays careful attention to self-knowledge, Plato must think that the Clouds does too. It notes in particular that we can explain the Platonic Socrates' famous self-knowledge-related curiosity about his similarity to Typhon (230a) as Plato's allusion to Aristophanes, an allusion made apt by Aristophanes' coordination of Socrates with self-knowledge. Section VIII concludes the paper
Allusion · Art · Epistemology · Literature · Meaning (existential · Section (typography · SOCRATES · Socratic method · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Computer Science · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Philosophy
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Plotinus on Memory, Recollection and Discursive Thought
The Place and Nature of Memory in Greek Historiography
The Greek Philosophers on How to Memorise – and Learn
Aristophanes and his Muses, or Memory in a Comic Key
Plotinus
Hellenistic Cultural Memory
Claudius Aelianus
Is Memory of the Past?
Speaking in the Wax Tablets of Memory
Socrates and Self-Knowledge
Knowledge and Ignorance of Self in Platonic Philosophy
Between Ascent and Descent
Greek Memories
Socratic gymnasium in the clouds
Aristophanes and Socrates on learning practical wisdom
How to ‘Know Thyself’ in Plato’s Phaedrus
Aristotle's Poetics and the Painters
Plato’s Phaedrus And The Problem Of Unity
Parodie d'une initiation dans les Nuées d'Aristophane
A Note on Clouds 1104-5
Socratic Midwifery, Platonic Inspiration
Der Manteldiebstahl Des Sokrates (Ar. Nub. 175-9)
Pindar's Charioteer in Plato's Phaedrus (227b9–10)
Midwifery and the Clouds
Aυtoς Kaθ' Aυton in the Clouds
Supplementing the Ecstatic
Eview Article
| Citations per year | 1.45 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2019 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |