Plato and Myth

This volume seeks to show how the philosophy of Plato relates to the literary form of his discourse. Myth is one aspect of this relation whose importance for the study of Plato is only now beginning to be recognized. Reflection on this topic is essential not only for understanding Plato’s conception of philosophy and its methods, but also for understanding more broadly the relation between philosophy and literature. The twenty chapters of this volume, contributed by scholars of diverse backgrounds and approaches, elucidate the various uses and statuses of Platonic myths in the first place by reflecting on myth per se and in the second place by focusing on a specific myth in the Platonic corpus.

Pierre Destrée, 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-Panthéon-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 quête héroïque d'immortalité dans l'épopée homérique (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 Destrée, Monique Dixsaut, Louis-André Dorion, Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, G. R. F. Ferrari, Francisco J. Gonzalez, Elsa Grasso, Christoph Horn, Annie Larivée, Christopher Moore, Kathryn Morgan, Glenn Most, Elizabeth Pender, Christopher Rowe, Harold Tarrant, Franco Trabattoni, Gerd van Riel

"Angesichts des steinigen Diskussionsgeländes und der Qualität der Beiträge muss das Fazit zu Plato and Myth lauten: Für jeden, der sich mit Platons Mythen befasst, ist dies ein empfehlenswertes Buch." Christian Schäfer in BMCR 02.11.2012