Rewriting the History of Ancient Greek Philosophy

(Hardback)

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This text examines what we can reliably know about Plato and the historical Socrates. It shows how pervasively the sources of information were biased by Pythagoreanism, Platonism and Neoplatonism. It gives a source-critical account of how the climate of opinion in 4th-century Athens was captured by the Pythagoreans and how Speusippo's Academy also came to be pythagorized - adding definitional idealism to Pythagorean number idealism, and elevating Plato to a divine level that makes him into a coequal of Pythagoras, thus capturing Plato for Pythagoreanism. By showing how Plato's dialogues were dedramatized, dedialogized and read or understood as if they were works expounding pythagorizing doctrine, Tejera has created a provocative reappraisal for scholars of ancient Greek philosophy.

Reviews

"This study is of cardinal interest to all who wish to become aware of the larger ironies and conflations within the philosophic schools of the ancient world: how the words of the Presocratics, Plato, and Aristotle have been kidnapped by their commentators for the creation and maintenance of new orthodoxies that none of the original thinkers would have recognized as their own. For its semiotic savvy alone, as well as for its awareness of the oral-aural mindset overtaken by the new impact of the written word, this study amply repays both the lay reader and the scholar of the history of philosophy."-Andres Mata Editor, "El Universal" and Regional Director, Inter-American Press Association

Author Bio

V. TEJERA is Stony Brook University Professor Emeritus of Humanities. He is the author of ten earlier books and numerous articles surveying Greek philosophy, classic American thought, and literary theory.