Platonic Psychology: Appetitive: A Preview of Things to Come

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Appetitive: A Preview of Things to Come

During the most recent exam I proctored, I finished Phrasikleia: An Anthropology of Reading in Ancient Greece, a book recommended to me by Ovid II. In Phrasikleia, Jasper Svenboro looks at the different conceptions of reading in Ancient Greece beginning with (and primarily focusing on) Archaic grave monument inscriptions (which were central to the second chapter of my thesis). His work is fabulous. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I plan on writing an extensive review tomorrow, but I recommend it to anyone who is interested in literacy in the Ancient World. It makes extensive reference to Plato's Phaedrus as well as Derrida's Dissemination (which includes "Plato's Pharmacy" [1], an extensive essay on Plato's Phaedrus).

While I was at my Alma Mater, I gave Ovid II a copy of Postmodern Platos: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer, Strauss, Derrida as a graduation gift. He thought we should read it together, over skype; an idea to which I heartily agreed. The book is by Catherine Zuckert, the woman who wrote Plato's Philosophers (a work which I discuss so frequently on this blog). I am not yet sure whether it falls within the classics parameters of this blog, but I shall find out.

Coming soon also: the sixth and final installment of "Dates in the Platonic Corpus" and some translation, probably including Horace 1.38.

Plato: Phaedrus (Aris & Phillips Classical Texts)

Postmodern Platos: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer, Strauss, Derrida

Endnotes

"Plato's Pharmacy" is a fabulously engaging essay. I highly recommend it. If you don't like the PDF version linked to there (from http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/avramenko/Methods/Derrida_PlatosPharmacy.pdf), there is also a version at Scribd and here. Do read Plato's Phaedrus first, if you have not read it.

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Why Platonic Psychology?

Entry types into this blog are divided into three categories: appetitive, spirited, and reasoning to correspond with the three parts of the Platonic conception of the soul. The appetitive portion will most often be humorous content with a classical bent. However, Plato's understanding of appetitive is much broader than that, encompassing the general pleasures of spectacle-- such as theater, both comedy and tragedy-- as well as emotions and bodily pains and pleasures. Sometimes I will stray into one of the more Platonic uses of appetitive. If I can manage it, I will post a weekly translation of a joke or funny phrase into Latin or Greek. The spirited portion (literally timophillic i.e. honor loving) will be my own ideas about Greek and Roman ideas. This section attempts to put me on the map as a classicist with a point of view. The reasoning part will be commentary and reviews on classical texts. I will also try to post a passage for Latin or Greek prose composition, as well as translations of prose passages or poetry in Latin or Greek. I will offer my take on the passage, and if anyone would like to offer their own attempt at the passage, or corrections or criticisms of mine, they will be welcome to do so in a comment on the blogpost or email me at sulpicia3@hotmail.com.

Bread, Roman Poetry, and Other Frivolity

If you're interested in me as well as my commentary about classical texts, visit my personal blog Fragments of Sulpicia (III), in which I discuss my general day-to-day existence, alongside bread recipes, pedagogy, and Roman Love Elegy.

The Roman love elegists, writing at the end of the Roman Republic wrote beautiful poems about their experiences in love, creating the persona or changing the name of a real person on whom to center their poetry. The only extant female poet calls herself Sulpicia, daughter of Servius and constructs her poems around her lover, Cerninthus. In order to write freely, I have taken up her name, Sulpicia, and the names of her characters and the characters of her contemporary love elegists, to refer to people in my own life. A reference list of characters can be found on the righthand side of Fragments of Sulpicia (III).

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Appetitive: A Preview of Things to Come

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