Lexington Books
Pages: 242
•
Trim: 6⅜ x 9⅜
978-1-4985-4130-5 • Hardback • January 2018 • $105.00 • (£81.00)
978-1-4985-4131-2 • eBook • January 2018 • $99.50 • (£77.00)
Jesse I. Bailey is associate professor of philosophy at Sacred Heart University.
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Questions of the Self
Chapter 2: Λόγος and the Minotaur
Chapter 3: Arguments and Assumptions about the Soul
Chapter 4: Recollection and the Activity of the Soul “Itself through Itself”
Chapter 5: Images of the Soul
Chapter 6: The Turn to the Λόγος
Chapter 7: Forms, Causes, and Μέθεξις
Bibliography
Over the last few decades, there has been a revolution in Plato interpretation, and in Logos and Psyche in the Phaedo, Jesse Bailey draws on some of the best of this scholarship to produce an original interpretation of the Phaedo. Plato’s philosophy, in place of the simplistic, other-worldly cartoon that is typically ascribed to him, is shown to be subtle and complex and focused on the practical realities of shared human life. Focusing on the dramatic framing of the conversation, Bailey offers provocative new interpretations of all the major arguments of the Phaedo, challenging the standard idea that they are intended as proofs of personal immortality. His argument culminates in Chapter 6, “The Turn to Logos,” in which Bailey shows that it is how we take account of things—the tales we tell ourselves—and especially how we interpret what is good, that is what ultimately brings about the unity (or lack thereof) of the soul and of the things of our world. We live in an inherently human world—this the ultimate force of Socrates’ “second sailing.” Bailey does an excellent job of demonstrating that the Phaedo puts on display most powerfully the vulnerability and the humanity of Socrates, and shows his philosophy to be a focus on the inherent finitude of our human lives and on the good that is realized in and through the things of our world.
— John Russon, Sacred Heart University
Jesse Bailey’s reading of the Phaedo does justice to the dialogue's analytical rigor as well as to its literary complexity. As he writes early in the book, “We are, in the dialogues, supposed to spend time with Socrates”—and his interpretation of the Phaedo is remarkable for how it takes cues from Plato's Socrates as to what is worthy of our attention and what is not. Accordingly, Bailey’s approach to Plato is always with an eye to the complex situatedness of the philosophical arguments in the text. To my mind, his approach to Plato represents the best in contemporary interpretive work, as it is well-versed in the scholarship, it is attentive to the Greek text, and it shows a nuanced appreciation of Plato’s literary artistry.
— Robert Metcalf, University of Colorado Denver