Plato’s Apology and the Gorgias: Yearning for Political and Spiritual Regeneration
In the Gorgias, like the Protagoras, Socrates must confront one of the great figures of his time, Gorgias of Leontini, who is not merely a rhetorician, but…
Learning Through Stories: How to Start Teaching the Truth
Teaching and Learning[1] In Guide to Thomas Aquinas, Josef Pieper points out that Aquinas was attracted to the Order of Preachers, in good part, because of his…
On Technological Utopianism
I propose an inquiry into what Hans Jonas once called the “built-in, automatic utopianism” of our thought and actions. Jonas suggests that this “utopian drift” inheres in…
Hierarchy, Beauty, and Freedom: D. H. Lawrence’s Response To Techno-Industrial Modernity
The discussion which follows is intended to provide more evidence for what a number of scholars have recently been contending about Lawrence’s fundamental ontological vision. It derives…
Plato’s Mythoi: The Political Soul’s Drama Beyond
Logos and Mythos in Plato’s Dialogues Metaphor and analogy are a preparation for examining the status and function of mythos in Plato. What does it mean that…
Review of Plato’s Mythoi: The Political Soul’s Drama Beyond
Plato’s Mythoi: The Political Soul’s Drama Beyond. Donald H. Roy. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018. In Plato’s Mythoi, the Political Soul’s Drama Beyond, Donald H. Roy…
On the Depths of Villainy
Probably the most famous letter writer of the ancient world was Cicero. In 59 B.C., Cicero wrote to Gaius Scribonius: “There are many sorts of letters. But…
The Tyrant’s Unexamined Soul
A recurring theme in Plato’s dialogues, including his Seventh Letter, describes the education of a young man who wants to achieve the highest things, which he considers…
Socrates and Divine Revelation
Socrates and Divine Revelation. Lewis Fallis. Rochester, University of Rochester Press, 2018. In the landscape of political philosophy today, one is fairly hard-pressed to find any…
Forbidden Delicacies: The Ideal City, the Luxurious City, and the Marketplace in Plato’s Republic
Socrates describes the “Ideal City” early in Bk. II of the Republic. Glaucon is not satisfied with the constitution. He says that “you make the people feast…
“The Delicate Shimmer of Interlaced Rainbows”: Sunaisthesis, Homophrosynê and a Reply to My Friends
I thank Steven McGuire for organizing this symposium and Lee Trepanier for publishing it here on Voegelinview. Away from the friendships unfriendly that dominate the internet and…
Aristotle and Plato on Friendship
In The Form of Politics, John von Heyking directs his readers to the critical importance of friendship in the political thought of Aristotle and Plato. The title…
The Form of Politics as Friendship
I’d like to take a road trip with John von Heyking. I don’t know if he and I could ever achieve that rare gem which is friendship,…
Contemplating Friendship
John von Heyking’s analysis of friendship in The Form of Politics centers on the Greek concept of sunaisthesis, the triangle of perception and recognition that occurs when…
Friendship and “Filthy” Politics in Plato and Aristotle
The Italian philosopher and statesman, Benedetto Croce, once wrote that, “politics and filth are so frequently identified in the ordinary conversation of people that the thoughtful person…