Cynthia Freeland
Seminar Spring 2011: Plato on Vision and Images
Tues 2:30-5:30 512
Agnes Arnold Hall
Course Description
This course will
involve a close study of Plato’s theory of vision and images. The entire world
is an image or “eikon” according to Plato,
so his overview of the realm of Forms from the Phaedo affords us entry into the general system of his metaphysics.
We will move on to examine details of Plato’s account of physical reality,
visual perception, perceptual illusions. The last topic is significant because
it is used both in Plato’s account of art in Republic X and as the model for something like pleasure- and
desire-illusions in various of his works. This parallel with vision and visual
illusions informs Plato’s theory of ethics and provides the basis for
explaining how the good life aims at avoiding pleasure illusions so as to
pursue the most truly pleasant things.
We will begin with a
review of the classic presentation of the theory of forms in the Phaedo, reading it together with some key
passages of the Republic (the
metaphors of Cave, Line, and Sun, plus Book X). We then move on to focus on three works in
their entirety. First is the Theaetetus,
a dialogue focused on epistemological issues, including the relation between
perception and knowledge and the rebuttal of relativism. Second, the Timaeus presents Plato’s cosmological views
through a creation story about the universe and the role of humans within it. Finally
we will study the Philebus, in which
Plato advances both a revised metaphysics and a new ethics that allows for the
inclusion of pleasure in the good life. This work develops a sophisticated
analysis of pleasure and desire, and defends Socrates’ controversial claim that
there can be “false pleasures” or “pleasure illusions.”
Students will be
expected to write a weekly exegesis on an assigned text and to write either two
ten-page papers or one twenty-page seminar paper. We will consult both the
ancient texts (any Greek-readers are welcome!) and recent commentaries and
journal articles on these works.
Books: Required
Theatetus (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
by Plato (Author), M.J. Levett, Trans.
Revised by Myles Burnyeat
Hackett, paperback
08772201589
Timaeus (Paperback by Plato (Author), Donald J. Zeyl (Translator)
Hackett Publishing Company; New Ed edition (March 2000)
$10.95/$6.05 used
· ISBN-10: 0872204464
· ISBN-13: 978-0872204461
Philebus by Plato, translated Dorothea Frede
Hackett Pub Co Inc. (paperback)
ISBN 0872201708 (0-87220-170-8)
Recommended
Phaedo (
By Plato (Author),
David Gallop (Translation, edition)
ISBN 0-19-283090-2
Plato Complete Works (Hardcover)
by Plato (Author), John M. Cooper (Editor), D. S. Hutchinson (Editor) · 1808 pages
Hackett Publishing Company (May 1997)
· ISBN-10: 0872203492
· ISBN-13: 978-0872203495
The
· ISBN-10: 0521436109
· ISBN-13: 978-0521436106