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Philosophy

Selected Works

Plato

Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Asking For Plato's Forgiveness. Floyer Sydenham: A Platonic Visionary Of 18th-Century Britain, Kyriakos N. Demetriou Jul 2013

Asking For Plato's Forgiveness. Floyer Sydenham: A Platonic Visionary Of 18th-Century Britain, Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Floyer Sydenham (1710–1787), the eminent British Platonist, has been unduly neglected in the interpretative historiography of the modern Platonic tradition. Amid a climate of indifference, he set out to offer the first complete English translation of the Platonic dialogues, begging for subscriptions that never materialized. He died in debtors’ prison on April 1, 1787. Between 1759 and 1780 he managed to translate nine dialogues incorporating a large number of explanatory notes and linguistic emendations to the existing texts. Set in the context of the intellectual and discursive tradition of the era, Sydenham’s Platonism expanded on Lord Shaftesbury’s teleological views of …


The Platonic Legend [In Greek], Kyriakos N. Demetriou Jun 2008

The Platonic Legend [In Greek], Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Kyriakos N. Demetriou

This is the first study ever on the history of modern Platonic exegesis in Greek, and would hopefully introduce the “Rezeptionsgechichte” discipline into Greek academia. What I am trying to prove is a simple, albeit controversial thesis, namely that the existence of so many conflicting accounts about Plato’s philosophy proves that George Grote’s argument put forward in the 1860s (in a nutshell, that Plato had no distinct philosophical system to establish apart from a consistent aim running through the dialogues, that of expounding a philosophical method -- not a doctrine), is still compellingly legitimate. The existence of many “Platonisms” (in …


Reconsidering The Platonic Cleitophon, Kyriakos N. Demetriou Dec 2000

Reconsidering The Platonic Cleitophon, Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Kyriakos N. Demetriou

This article unravels the riddle of the Platonic "Cleitophon" through an examination of S.R. Slings' "Plato, Clitophon" (Cambridge University Press, 1999). It examines the history of the reception of this dialogue from the 19th century to present day Platonic analytic and interpretative approaches.


The Development Of Platonic Studies In Britain And The Role Of The Utilitarians, Kyriakos N. Demetriou Mar 1996

The Development Of Platonic Studies In Britain And The Role Of The Utilitarians, Kyriakos N. Demetriou

Kyriakos N. Demetriou

The British utilitarians are not generally considered explorers of classical Greek thought. This paper examines the contribution of James Mill, John Stuart Mill, and George Grote to the development of Platonic studies in nineteenth-century Britain. Their understanding of Platonic philosophy challenged prevalent interpretations, and caused a fruitful debate over long neglected aspects of Plato's thought. Grote's Platonic analysis, which comes last in order of time, cannot, of course, be considered in isolation from the relevant debates in Germany. Grote, the erudite historian of ancient Greece, paid considerable attention to the arguments of the German classicists, put forward in many cases …