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Intended Ambiguity in Plato’s Phaedo

  • Chloe Balla
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Strategies of Ambiguity in Ancient Literature
This chapter is in the book Strategies of Ambiguity in Ancient Literature

Abstract

In this paper I draw attention to five cases in which ambiguity in the Phaedo is used as a tool in the author’s narrative strategy. I offer a brief presentation of the first four cases. A discussion of ambiguity in three interrelated notions, namely death, phármakon, and health, allows us to tolerate and appreciate ambiguity in one particular statement, that is Socrates’ last words concerning a debt to Asclepius, which forms my fourth case of ambiguity. I then turn to, and focus on, a fifth case. I argue that in the Phaedo Plato intends his readers to think of Socrates as an ambiguous figure, a charismatic man who shared attributes with the professional teachers that Plato considered as sophists but at the same time paved the way to the unprecedented conception of philosophy that his student Plato was going to introduce. I propose to discuss Plato’s representation of Socrates in the Phaedo, a dialogue in which - as a growing number of scholars point out - the author uses the occasion of Socrates’ death to present his own philosophical agenda. In doing so, Plato intends to claim his Socratic heritage as a ‘branding’ for his own enterprise. At the same time, he wishes to draw a line between his debt to his teacher and his own philosophical contribution. I argue that intended ambiguity plays an important role in Plato’s representation of Socrates, with regard to (a) argumentation and the quest for truth, and (b) the criticism of traditional religion by Plato’s philosophical theology.

Abstract

In this paper I draw attention to five cases in which ambiguity in the Phaedo is used as a tool in the author’s narrative strategy. I offer a brief presentation of the first four cases. A discussion of ambiguity in three interrelated notions, namely death, phármakon, and health, allows us to tolerate and appreciate ambiguity in one particular statement, that is Socrates’ last words concerning a debt to Asclepius, which forms my fourth case of ambiguity. I then turn to, and focus on, a fifth case. I argue that in the Phaedo Plato intends his readers to think of Socrates as an ambiguous figure, a charismatic man who shared attributes with the professional teachers that Plato considered as sophists but at the same time paved the way to the unprecedented conception of philosophy that his student Plato was going to introduce. I propose to discuss Plato’s representation of Socrates in the Phaedo, a dialogue in which - as a growing number of scholars point out - the author uses the occasion of Socrates’ death to present his own philosophical agenda. In doing so, Plato intends to claim his Socratic heritage as a ‘branding’ for his own enterprise. At the same time, he wishes to draw a line between his debt to his teacher and his own philosophical contribution. I argue that intended ambiguity plays an important role in Plato’s representation of Socrates, with regard to (a) argumentation and the quest for truth, and (b) the criticism of traditional religion by Plato’s philosophical theology.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Figures XI
  5. Part I: Concepts and Aesthetics of Ambiguity
  6. Modern and Ancient Concepts of Ambiguity 1
  7. Aristotle on Ambiguity 11
  8. Intended Ambiguity in Plato’s Phaedo 29
  9. The Ambiguity of the Unambiguous: Figures of Death in Late Medieval Literature 43
  10. The Modern Perspective: Ambiguity, Artistic Self-Reference, and the Autonomy of Art 61
  11. Part II: Playing with Linguistic Ambiguity
  12. Traversing No-Man’s Land 81
  13. The Ambiguity of Wisdom: Mētis in the Odyssey 91
  14. Borges in Alexandria? Modes of Ambiguity in Hellenistic Poetry 101
  15. Sympotic Sexuality: The Ambiguity of Seafood in Middle Comedy (Nausicrates fr. 1 K.-A.) 123
  16. Liber esto – Wordplay and Ambiguity in Petronius’ Satyrica 141
  17. Part III: Ambiguous Narratives
  18. Half Heroes? Ambiguity in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 157
  19. Underneath the Arachnean and Minervan Veil of Ambiguity: Cultural and Political Simulatio in Ovidian Ecphrasis 175
  20. Ambigua Verba, Hidden Desire and Auctorial Intentionality in Some Ovidian Speeches (Met. 3.279−92; 7.810−23; 10.364−6, 440−1) 193
  21. The Pleasures of Ambiguity: Aristomenes’ Tale of Socrates in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 207
  22. Legens. Ambiguity, Syllepsis and Allegory in Claudian’s De Raptu Proserpinae 219
  23. Part IV: Ambiguity as Argument
  24. Between Conversion and Madness: Sophisticated Ambiguity in Lucian’s Nigrinus 237
  25. Catullan Ambiguity 251
  26. Prophetic, Poetic and Political Ambiguity in Vergil Eclogue 4 273
  27. Vitae aut vocis ambigua: Seneca the Younger and Ambiguity 285
  28. Who speaks? – Ambiguity and Vagueness in the Design of Cicero’s Dialogue Speakers 297
  29. Unsettling Effects and Disconcertment — Strategies of Enacting Interpretations in Tacitusʼ Annals 315
  30. The Latin Commentary Tradition on ‘Inclusive’ Intended Ambiguity 331
  31. Part V: Ambiguous Receptions
  32. Ambivalent Allegories: Giovan Battista Marino’s Adone (1623) between Censorship and Hermeneutic Freedom 351
  33. Multipliers of Ambiguity: The Use of Quotations in Cavafy’s Poems Concerning the Emperor Julian 365
  34. Seven Perspectives of Ambiguity and the Problem of Intentionality 381
  35. List of Contributors 405
  36. General Index 411
  37. Index of Passages 417
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110715811-003

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Figures XI
  5. Part I: Concepts and Aesthetics of Ambiguity
  6. Modern and Ancient Concepts of Ambiguity 1
  7. Aristotle on Ambiguity 11
  8. Intended Ambiguity in Plato’s Phaedo 29
  9. The Ambiguity of the Unambiguous: Figures of Death in Late Medieval Literature 43
  10. The Modern Perspective: Ambiguity, Artistic Self-Reference, and the Autonomy of Art 61
  11. Part II: Playing with Linguistic Ambiguity
  12. Traversing No-Man’s Land 81
  13. The Ambiguity of Wisdom: Mētis in the Odyssey 91
  14. Borges in Alexandria? Modes of Ambiguity in Hellenistic Poetry 101
  15. Sympotic Sexuality: The Ambiguity of Seafood in Middle Comedy (Nausicrates fr. 1 K.-A.) 123
  16. Liber esto – Wordplay and Ambiguity in Petronius’ Satyrica 141
  17. Part III: Ambiguous Narratives
  18. Half Heroes? Ambiguity in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 157
  19. Underneath the Arachnean and Minervan Veil of Ambiguity: Cultural and Political Simulatio in Ovidian Ecphrasis 175
  20. Ambigua Verba, Hidden Desire and Auctorial Intentionality in Some Ovidian Speeches (Met. 3.279−92; 7.810−23; 10.364−6, 440−1) 193
  21. The Pleasures of Ambiguity: Aristomenes’ Tale of Socrates in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 207
  22. Legens. Ambiguity, Syllepsis and Allegory in Claudian’s De Raptu Proserpinae 219
  23. Part IV: Ambiguity as Argument
  24. Between Conversion and Madness: Sophisticated Ambiguity in Lucian’s Nigrinus 237
  25. Catullan Ambiguity 251
  26. Prophetic, Poetic and Political Ambiguity in Vergil Eclogue 4 273
  27. Vitae aut vocis ambigua: Seneca the Younger and Ambiguity 285
  28. Who speaks? – Ambiguity and Vagueness in the Design of Cicero’s Dialogue Speakers 297
  29. Unsettling Effects and Disconcertment — Strategies of Enacting Interpretations in Tacitusʼ Annals 315
  30. The Latin Commentary Tradition on ‘Inclusive’ Intended Ambiguity 331
  31. Part V: Ambiguous Receptions
  32. Ambivalent Allegories: Giovan Battista Marino’s Adone (1623) between Censorship and Hermeneutic Freedom 351
  33. Multipliers of Ambiguity: The Use of Quotations in Cavafy’s Poems Concerning the Emperor Julian 365
  34. Seven Perspectives of Ambiguity and the Problem of Intentionality 381
  35. List of Contributors 405
  36. General Index 411
  37. Index of Passages 417
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