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Julia Pfefferkorn’s “Platons tanzende Stadt” (Conrado Eggers Lan Prize Winner) Just Published

Julia Pfefferkorn, the winner of the third Conrado Eggers Lan Prize for Best Dissertation (2018-21), now has the monograph version of her dissertation—titled, Platons tanzende Stadt. Moralpsychologie und Chortanz in den Nomoi—just published in Brill's Plato Studies series (vol. 11). See the book page for more info » Abstract [German/Deutsch]: Weshalb ist der Chortanz (χορεία) in Platons Nomoiso prominent? Zur Beantwortung dieser Frage bietet dieses Buch eine eingehende Analyse der Moralpsychologie des Dialogs und argumentiert, dass der Tanz nicht nur ein erzieherisches Instrument, sondern – als körperlicher Ausdruck geordneter Lust – auch ein Symbolbild für das Hauptziel der moralischen Erziehung ist: die Mäßigung (σωφροσύνη). So wird der Chortanz zu einem wirkmächtigen Konstrukt zur Veranschaulichung der philosophischen Hauptanliegen Platons. Zu den Schwerpunkten des Buches gehören darüber hinaus eine innovative Erklärung des komplexen Aufbaus des Dialogs, neue Deutungen des Marionettengleichnisses und der Ansprache an die Tragiker sowie die erste Untersuchung der moralischen Funktion [...]

Call for papers: Image and Imagination in Plato (Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 27–29, 2020)

Plato’s attitude towards images is ambiguous. On the one hand, there are unmistakable signs that he denounces the status of images. In the simile of the Line, he puts images in the lowest subsection. He criticizes image-makers such as poets and painters. One of his main criticisms of the sophists is also that they are image-makers. On the other hand, Plato’s dialogues are full of vivid images. He may even have thought that the use of images and imagination is an intermediate step and a necessary means for achieving the highest level of understanding. How should we account for this ambiguity? Traditional studies on Plato’s views of image and imagination have focused mainly on the Republic and the Sophist, especially on his negative treatments of images and image-makings in them. In recent decades, however, more attention has been given to his positive views both in these dialogues and in other [...]