Sean D. Kirkland - The Ontology of Socratic Questioning in Plato’s Early Dialogues

SUNY SERIES IN CONTEMPORARY CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY

Dennis J. Schmidt, editor

SUNY SERIES IN ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY

Anthony Preus, editor

The Ontology of Socratic Questioning in Plato's Early Dialogues

SEAN D. KIRKLAND

Cover photo: Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs, west pediment, Temple of Zeus, Olympia
(Photo: Hirmer Fotoarchiv, Mnchen)

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

2012 State University of New York

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kirkland, Sean D.

The ontology of Socratic questioning in Platos early dialogues / Sean D. Kirkland

pages cm. (SUNYseries in contemporary Continental philosophy) (SUNY series in ancient Greek philosophy)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4384-4403-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Plato. 2. Socrates. 3. Ontology. 4. Questioning. I. Title.

B398.O5K57 2012

184dc23

2011047982

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Acknowledgments

While researching and writing this book, I was fortunate to receive funding from the following sources: the State University of New York at Stony Brook; the Collegium Philosophiae Transatlanticum (CPT), which was funded by both the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Kade Foundation; the Latin/Greek Institute of Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate School; the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD); and the University Research Council (URC) of DePaul University.

As this text is related, however distantly, to my dissertation, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the great debt I owe to all the inspiring teachers I have had during my years at Gustavus Adolphus College, Stony Brook, and the University of Wuppertal, Germany, as well as at the Latin/Greek Institute. I am especially grateful to the two professors who acted as coadvisors for the dissertation, Peter Manchester and Klaus Held, and in addition, I thank the rest of the committee, Professors Clyde Lee Miller, Edward S. Casey, and Francisco Gonzalez, for their helpful questions and comments. Since taking a position in the Department of Philosophy at DePaul University, I have grown as a thinker thanks to the challenge and inspiration provided by my colleagues here; various parts of the following have benefited in particular from the criticisms and suggestions of David Farrell Krell, Richard A. Lee, William McNeil, Michael Naas, Franklin Perkins, and Peter Steeves. Finally, colleagues elsewhere who have substantively improved this work along the way with their comments on and responses to chapters they have read include Sara Brill, Jill Gordon, Heinrich Hni, Malek Moazzam-Doulat, Andrea Rehberg, and Peter Trawny.

Intellectual stimulation and moral support have come in equal measure from family and friends and I take the opportunity here to express my sincere appreciation to them all en masse. Most of all, I must thank my wife, Lisa Mahoney. Because I adore her she lends a flattering light to everything that appears on my horizon, but this work has benefited from her in substantive ways too, not only from her discerning editorial judgment, but also from her clarifying intelligence and essential questioning.

List of Abbreviations for Ancient Works Cited

All texts in Latin and Greek are taken from the Oxford Classical Texts series (Oxford: Clarendon Press) and translated by the author, unless otherwise noted.