Plato's Republic and Public Arts
Michael Weinman
Political Science
This course offers a semester-long engagement with Plato’s Republic in dialogue with the main works and movements that shaped its cultural and intellectual context. Republic offers a unique point of entry into the literary, philosophical, and political achievements of fifth and fourth century Athens; above all, it helps us understand the _public _dimension of the literary, visual, and performing arts of its time. It depicts, and draws us into, a conversation about ethical, political, aesthetic, religious, epistemic, and literary questions that are fundamental to human life. Rather than a series of separate treatises, Republic treats these questions as the subject of a single investigation that transcends disciplinary boundaries as we have come to conceive them. And while it may be said to contain a “social contract” theory, a theory of psychology, a theology, a critique of mimetic art, a theory of education, and a typology of political regimes, it is reducible to none of these. This book, perhaps in a manner unlike any other written before or after, offers an illuminating starting point for any set of inquiries one might wish to pursue today. In this course we shall be particularly attentive to the dramatic character of Plato’s writing and to its exchanges with other authors, works, genres and modes of thought. We read the book alongside excerpts from and readings and performances of some of the main artistic works with which it engages: Homer’s Iliad; Aristophanes’ Clouds; selections from Sappho; the architecture of the Parthenon, and Euripides’ Bacchae. Attending to the interlocutors with which Republic is engaged, we will strive to better understand and evaluate its arguments and drama.
Catalog Information: HON-H 234 LITERATURE OF TIME AND PLACE