Plato and Xenophon: Comparative Studies
Despite the prime importance of Plato, and the historical value and intrinsic interest of Xenophon, relations between these two students of Socrates remain a relatively unexplored area in contemporary research. We seek to fill this gap by building on valuable work that has been done recently in clarifying Xenophon’s philosophical positions and bringing his writings into closer relation with Plato’s.
L. A. Dorion’s recently completed commentary on the Memorabilia and his just published volume of collected essays on Xenophon’ Socrates are among the prime examples of the recent flowering of studies on Xenophon and Xenophon’s Socrates. Their appearance provides us with an excellent opportunity to take stock of where the comparative study of Plato and Xenophon stands, and where we should take it from here.
Our conference calls for papers that further this project by elucidating concepts found in Xenophon’s writings and bringing them into relationship with Plato. Possible topics include but are not limited to: happiness and the human telos, violence and persuasion, law and justice, the virtues, the emotions, the soul, and the divine. We are also interested in papers that address literary and personal relations and other common themes in the writings of these two authors that may help clarify their relations and the climate of opinion in which they wrote.
Confirmed participants include:
- Fiorenza Bevilacqua
- Louis-Andre Dorion
- Noreen Humble
- David Johnson
- Don Morrison
- James Redfield
- Alessandro Stavru
The conference will be held between the dates of June 9-June 11 2014 at Bar Ilan University, Israel
Papers should be written in English with an eye towards publication. We will offer editorial assistance for contributors whose first language is other than English. Proposals of any length including full name and title, institution, provisional title of the paper must be received by January 15 and full papers by March 15.
Please send to: platoandxenophon@gmail.com
Academic advisory committee: Gabriel Danzig, Don Morrison, Nili Alon Amit
We gratefully acknowledge the support of:
- The Lechter Institute for Literary Research
- The Lewis Family Foundation for International Conferences in the Humanities
