Plato's Republic (eBook)

Alain Badiou (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2013
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
978-0-7456-7627-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Plato's Republic is one of the most well-known and widely discussed texts in the history of philosophy, but how might we get to the heart of this work today, 2500 years after it was originally composed? Alain Badiou invents a new genre in order to breathe fresh life into Plato's text and restore its universality. Rather than producing yet another critical commentary, he has retranslated the work from the original Greek and, by making various changes, adapted it for our times.

In this innovative reimagining of a classic text, Badiou has removed all references specific to ancient Greek society, from the endless exchanges about the moral courage of poets to those political considerations that were only of interest to the aristocratic elite. On the other hand, Badiou has expanded the range of cultural references: here philosophy is firing on all cylinders, and Socrates and his companions are joined by Beckett, Pessoa, Freud and Hegel. They demonstrate the enduring nature of true philosophy, always ready to move with the times.

Moreover, Badiou the dramatist has made the Socratic dialogue a true oratorial contest: in his version of the Republic, the interlocutors have more in mind than merely agreeing with the Master. They stand up to him, put him on the spot and thereby show thought in motion. Through this work of writing, scholarship and philosophy, we are able, for the first time, to read a version of Plato's text which is alive, stimulating and directly relevant to our world today.

Autor

Alain Badiou is a writer, philosopher, and Professor Emeritus of the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Among his many books are Being and Event, Logics of Worlds, The Century and In Praise of Love.

Inhalt

Introduction by Kenneth Reinhard

Translator's Preface

Author's Preface to the English Edition

Preface

Characters

Prologue: Conversation in the Villa on the Harbor (327a-336b)

1 Reducing the Sophist to Silence (336b-357a)

2 The Young Men's and Women's Pressing Questions
(357a-368d)

3 The Origins of Society and the State (368d-376c)

4 The Disciplines of the Mind: Literature and Music
(376c-403c)

5 The Disciplines of the Body: Nutrition, Medicine and

Physical Education (403c-412c)

6 Objective Justice (412c-434d)

7 Subjective Justice (434d-449a)

8 Women and Families (449a-471c)

9 What is a Philosopher? (471c-484b)

10 Philosophy and Politics (484b-502c)

11 What is an Idea? (502c-521c)

12 From Mathematics to the Dialectic (521c-541b)

13 Critique of the Four Pre-communist Systems of Government:

1. Timocracy and Oligarchy (541b-555b)

14 Critique of the Four Pre-Communist Systems of Government:

2. Democracy and Tyranny (555b-573b)

15 Justice and Happiness (573b-592b)

16 Poetry and Thought (592b-608b)

Epilogue: The Mobile Eternity of Subjects (608b-end)

Notes

Index

Rezensionen

"I strongly recommend reading Badiou's amusing, erudite, and
intelligent book."

Consciousness, Literature and the Arts

"Badiou's translation of Plato follows the ancient habit of
pre-copyright times: it freely changes the original to make it fit
to contemporary conditions. So instead of sophists we get corrupted
journalists, instead of soul we get the subject, and instead of
Plato's critique of democracy we get... well, a critique of
today's democracy. The result is a resounding triumph: Plato
comes fully alive as our contemporary, as someone who directly
addresses our issues. This, not aseptic scholarly work, is the mark
of a true fidelity to our past."

Slavoj Zizek

"Here is something really remarkable: a complete re-imagining of
the founding text of philosophy This book calls itself a
hyper-translation, but it is also a repetition with a difference,
an utterly contemporary transposition and even sublimation of
Plato's Republic.

It is always our task to breathe life into the ancients. They
feed on our blood. Badiou shows himself a master of
vampirism."

Simon Critchley, New School for Social Research, New
York

"What Badiou's translation of Plato leaves us with is a
resounding passion for the truth. It leaves us with a rare sense
that politics can once again be associated with courage and
justice, and that we have an agency at our disposal that comes in
the passionate work of bringing the idea of equality (communism)
into existence."

Berfrois
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Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 3.5.2013
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Geschichte der Philosophie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie Altertum / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie der Neuzeit
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Schlagworte: Kulturtheorie • Literary & Cultural Theory • Literature • Literatur- u. Kulturtheorie • Literaturwissenschaft • Philosophie • Philosophy • Plato, Republic, history of philosophy, classic text
• ISBN-10: 0-7456-7627-8 / 0745676278
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-7627-2 / 9780745676272