Plato's Styles and Characters

Gabriele Cornelli, Gabriele Cornelli

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9783110436549
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Philosophy

The significance of Plato's literary style to the content of his ideas is perhaps one of the central problems in the study of Plato and Ancient Philosophy as a whole. As Samuel Scolnicov points out in this collection, many other philosophers have employed literary techniques to express their ideas, just as many literary authors have exemplified philosophical ideas in their narratives, but for no other philosopher does the mode of expression play such a vital role in their thought as it does for Plato. And yet, even after two thousand years there is still no consensus about why Plato expresses his ideas in this distinctive style.

Selected from the first Latin American Area meeting of the International Plato Society ( www.platosociety.org ) in Brazil in 2012, the following collection of essays presents some of the most recent scholarship from around the world on the wide range of issues related to Plato's dialogue form. The essays can be divided into three categories. The first addresses general questions concerning Plato's literary style. The second concerns the relation of his style to other genres and traditions in Ancient Greece. And the third examines Plato's characters and his purpose in using them.

Other Genres and Traditions

Michael Erler

Detailed Completeness and Pleasure of the Narrative. Some Remarks on the Narrative Tradition and Plato170

Introduction

In the ‘Preface’ of his novel Der Zauberberg Thomas Mann claims that pleasure results from the completeness of a narrative.171 In doing so he reacts to a differentiation between history and philosophy, which is propagated by Schopenhauer.172 But he also follows a tradition which goes back to antiquity, that is to Homer173, and also to the Platonic dialogues, as I shall argue. In the following I shall dwell on Plato as narrator.174 Plato, of course, never narrates a dialogue in his own person. Even in his dialogues with a framing narrative he always ascribes the role of primary narrator either to Socrates or to someone else.175 On the other hand it is characteristic of the Platonic Sokratikoi logoi – some even call this characteristic an invention by Plato176 – that Plato shows strong concern with character types, as well as with historical and detailed historical settings of the conversations he describes. Already in antiquity Plato was admired for his ability to describe situations in a realistic manner, conveying to the reader the feeling of being in a theatre.177 Often Plato reminds the reader of the sources of the stories and describes the character of narrators in detail.178 By doing so, he emphasizes the truth of the setting in a way that reminds one of the strategies employed by historians to prove the authenticity of a real conversation – recall the prooemia of the Symposium, the Parmenides or the beginning of the Timaeus.179 Plato plays the game so well that his dialogues sometimes were read as historical documents.180 Plato the narrator, it seems, aims at completeness of his narrative in order to entertain the reader. One wonders how this fits into what Plato, the philosopher, has to say about his search for a unity which lies behind the plurality of the phenomena and overcomes the plurality of the sensible world. One could try to explain it as a strategy. The ‘historical’ setting and personae of the dialogue function as a sort of evidence and as support for what is being argued for.181 I wish to focus on Plato’s way to narrate his stories in the dialogues, because the rhetoric of completeness Plato illustrates and practices, very much resembles what we find as early as in Homer.182 For like Homer the narrator Plato presents us with the figure of the narrator in dialogues, which combine dramatic and narrative elements183, which offers the same kind of rhetoric of completeness and which in addition to that reflects on what they think that the audience might expect of their narration. These reflections point to the poetical discussions of Plato’s times and can be understood – or so I shall argue – as kind of poetical self-commentaries and as a hermeneutical device.

To prove my case I mainly shall refer to two dialogues, the Phaedo and the Symposium. I shall suggest reading some passages in the light of the narrative tradition before Plato and in view of what Plato has to say in the Republic on poetry. I shall argue that Plato’s comments on his dialogues not only transform traditional concepts as they often do184 and that he takes position in a poetical debate about what a narration should be like, but also that he offers hermeneutical clues for a better understanding of some peculiarities of his own dialogues.

Examples from Plato’s dialogues

Let us turn to the Phaedo first. In the introductory conversation185 of the Phaedo, Echecrates asks Phaedo to tell him about what happened in Socrates’ last hours. For, as he says, he had not heard anything about Socrates’ death, whereas Phaedo – as it turns out – was present at this moment. Since Echecrates wishes to hear what happened, he asks Phaedo to report what Socrates said and how he died. In fact, nobody had been present of those able to recount clearly what Echecrates wishes to be told. So he asks Phaedo to describe the whole situation in detail, the discussions that took place during Socrates’s last hours in prison and everything he and his friends did say and do.186 Phaedo, of course, is well prepared to tell the story, because – as he explains – to think of Socrates for him is most pleasurable:

I will try to give you an account of what happened. There is nothing I like better than thinking about Socrates, whether I am talking about him myself or listening to someone else (Phd. 58d; transl. Bluck).

This little conversation at the beginning of the dialogue is remarkable for two reasons. First, when Echecrates insists that Phaedo should tell both “what was said” and “what was done” during Socrates’ last day187, Plato closely links the dramatic and the pragmatic aspects of the dialogue – Socrates’ pursuit of truth by arguments and his behaviour – and engages the reader in the search for truth by considering what has been said and what has been done. Second, it becomes clear also that a factual report is expected which is based on accuracy and is elaborated. At the same time these qualities are the reason why the report will be enjoyed by the narrator – Phaedo – and the recipient of the story – Echecrates.

Let us turn now to a second example of a narrator in a Platonic dialogue. At the beginning of the Symposium we observe quite the same situation. The opening part is composed in dramatic manner.188 Apollodoros offers a report about the banquet in honor of Agathos and his victory. Apollodoros thinks he is well prepared for this narration. For only recently – he says – he told an acquaintance – Glaukon – this very story as well. Now this Glaukon had heard the very story from somebody else. But he was in doubt whether the report was accurate at all, because the chronology of the meeting which was told did not seem to be correct to him. Yet Apollodoros claims that he had taken care to know exactly what Socrates said or did on that occasion. By doing so, Apollodoros signals – as did Echecrates in the Phaedo – that he is also very much interested in the historical aspect of the report, for instance when he assures his audience that he had checked what was said turning to Socrates several times and asking him for confirmation. This proves how much he was concerned to check the sources of what he was told.189 It seems that Plato creates here what could be called a ‘Beglaubigungsapparat’190, that is, a feature which will later become typical in the tradition of ancient novel and in historiography.191 Apollodoros’ narrative is not just about logoi concerning philosophy, but pretends to be called historia.

So again we observe that accuracy and detailed completeness of the story is what narrators in Plato are longing for and what is expected of them by their audiences. This is an expectation which Plato himself obviously tries to meet when he gives his dialogues the flavor of historical testimonies by telling stories about Socratic conversations in great detail and in historical settings.

Another example can be found in other dialogues as well. Very interesting in this respect is the Theaetetus.192 Here again a narrator – Eucleides – is well prepared to report a conversation which Socrates once had with Theaetetus. This narrator was not present in person at the discussion. He therefore tries to get information from others, takes notes, asks Socrates for confirmation and additional information, and notes down the whole discussion completely and accurately as a dialogue in writing. Again it becomes clear that the report of Eucleides is intended to be plausible, complete, detailed and authentic. More than that: It is expected, that exactly these qualities, this ‘rhetoric of completeness’, is what the audience expects and what it takes pleasure in, just like Apollodoros who says in the Symposium that when he talks about philosophy or listens to others he thinks that he enjoys it very much.193

Let us keep in mind then: The narrators in Plato – as far as we have seen – all aim at detailed completeness, authenticity and plausibility in their narrations, and by doing this, they obviously think, that stories told that way are regarded to be beneficial and enjoyable by the audience.

Tradition

The expectation of Apollodoros that the report about what happened at the symposium will be pleasurable and useful, and the expectations of other narrators and audiences in the dialogues, indeed are interesting.194 For they remind one of the discussions held in Hellenistic times about the utile and dulce as effects of poetry and narrations. This discussion culminates in what Horace has to say in the ars poetica about poets that wish to benefit or to please, or to speak what is enjoyable and helpful.195 Some authors like Eratosthenes196 indeed argued, that poets aim at psychagogia and do not wish to teach their readers; others like Aristotle argued, that didactic poems lecture and just because of that are not to be regarded as poems. According to Horace, Homer’s poems offer both pleasure and instruction. At least this is what Horace himself experienced – or so he claimed – when reading Homer at Praeneste.197 I would like to argue, that these alternatives of experiences and expectations – foul or fair, beneficial or edifying or both – point to a tradition which forms the background for what Apollorodoros or Echecrates have to say about what they expect from a narrative in Plato’s dialogues. Let us remind us for a moment of what we can learn about the relationship, or rather about the palintonos harmonia, of the concepts of the beneficial or enchantment – of prodesse or delectare – concerning poetry or the narrative from Homer onwards.198

Now, while reading Homeric epic we indeed get interesting information about what the audience expected from a singer and what he was prepared to offer.199 Most of the evidence comes from the Odyssey. Here Odysseus for instance makes compliments to the divine singer Demodokos. His song causes delight (terpein) because he produces a kind of song about the klea andrôn as if he was present at the events he is talking about, or as if he had heard about them from others. Demodokos obviously produces a kind of song which was liked by his audience, because the Phaeacians were delighted by his verses as was Odysseus in his praise of Demodokos in the Odyssey.200 And later on Odysseus asks the singer to tell the story of the building of the wooden horse, and again he asks for a very detailed story (katà moîran kataléxēs) and was moved to tears.201

It becomes clear that ‘To tell a story aright’ as Odysseus sees it, obviously means not lo leave out any detail, and to seek completeness and authenticity thanks to the inspiration of an authentic eyewitness. This suggests that a story...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Plato’s Literary Style
• Other Genres and Traditions
• Plato’s Characters
• Contributors
• Citations Index
• Author Index
• Subject Index
• Endnotes