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Literary And Poetic Performance In Plato's Laws, Gerard Naddaf

The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy Newsletter

Plato’s evaluations of the written and spoken word are complex, even ambiguous. On the one hand, he clearly privileges the give-and-take oral conversation as the paradigm for philosophical discussion, and on the basis of this paradigm he offers strong critiques of the written word, notably in the Phaedrus and Letter 7. On the other hand, he is a most famous enemy of the oral performance of poetry − notwithstanding the fact that in the Republic he gives ‘music’ a prominent place in education. When we turn to the Laws, we encounter another aspect or dimension of Plato’s thinking about the …