Plato and Myth ─ Studies on the Use and Status of Platonic Myths

This collection of twenty essays explores the relevance of myth and literary form in Plato's philosophy and by extension philosophy in general. They reflect on Plato's use of myth as and its importance to his experience of philosophy. Plato's myths don't just illustrate dialectic argumentation, but also attempt to provide access to a realm inaccessible to reason. The bulk of the essays survey different approaches to specific myths, including: choice and self-transformation in the Myth of Er, religious and moral elements of Plato's anthropology in the myth of Prometheus, myth and truth in Phaedrus, combating oblivion in the Myth of Er, and others. The first six essays reflect on the nature of Plato's myths and how to identify them. These consider issues of interpretation, myth as informative phantasma, literal and deep meanings in myth, myths and allegories in The Republic, freedom in Platonic myth, and Plato's exoteric myths. The contributors are professors of philosophy and classics from Europe, Canada and the United States. Rather than a standard index there is an index locorum, which differentiates between quotation references, references to discussions, and mere citation. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Pierre Destree, Ph.D. (1994) in Philosophy, University of Louvain, is Research Associate at the Fonds Belge de la Recherche Scientifique, and Associate Professor at the University of Louvain. His publications include numerous articles in ancient Greek ethics, and aesthetics. With Brill, he has co-edited (with Ch. Bobonich) Akrasia in Greek Philosophy (2007), and (with F.-G. Herrmann) Plato and the Poets (2011).Catherine Collobert, Ph.D. (1992) in Philosophy, University of Paris I-Pantheon-Sorbonne is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa. She has published numerous articles and books in Ancient Philosophy including Parier sur le temps: la quete heroique d'immortalite dans l'epopee homerique (Les Belles Lettres, 2011). Francisco J. Gonzalez, Ph.D. (1991) in Philosophy, University of Toronto, is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa. He has published widely in the areas of Ancient Philosophy and Contemporary Continental Philosophy, including: (ed.) The Third Way: New Directions in Platonic Studies (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), Dialectic and Dialogue: Plato's Practice of Philosophical Inquiry (Northwestern, 1998), and Plato and Heidegger: A Question of Dialogue (Penn State, 2009).Contributors: Luc Brisson, Claude Calame, Catherine Collobert, Pierre Destree, Monique Dixsaut, Louis-Andre Dorion, Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, G. R. F. Ferrari, Francisco J. Gonzalez, Elsa Grasso, Christoph Horn, Annie Larivee, Christopher Moore, Kathryn Morgan, Glenn Most, Elizabeth Pender, Christopher Rowe, Harold Tarrant, Franco Trabattoni, Gerd van Riel