Virtues of Authenticity : Essays on Plato and Socrates

Philosopher and classical scholar Alexander Nehamas presents here a collection of his essays on Plato and Socrates.

The papers are unified in theme by the idea that Plato's central philosophical concern in metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics was to distinguish the authentic from the fake, the original from its imitations.

In the book's opening section, Nehamas discusses Plato's representation of Socrates as a model of authentic human goodness, showing that Plato's Socrates is a more skeptical, troubling, and individualistic thinker than is usually supposed.

The papers in the second section form a sustained defence of a new understanding of Plato's theory of the forms and the evolution of that theory in Plato's later writings.

The third section examines Plato's contention that popular entertainment - by which he meant Greek epic and tragic poetry - misleads its audience into a debased life, an argument Nehamas relates to modern anxieties about television and other forms of popular culture.

The collection also includes a discussion of Plato's use of the dialogue form in his representation of Socrates and examines the combination of literary and philosophical elements in his work.