Abstract

The Argument of the Action is a collection of essays by Seth Benardete on Greek poetry and philosophy selected and introduced by Ronna Burger and Michael Davis. We must be grateful to the editors for making these remarkable essays available to readers once again. The collection encompasses the greater part of the most significant authors of Greek antiquity: Homer and Hesiod, the tragedians, and Plato and Aristotle. Each essay opens up the work under consideration and illuminates its essential concerns in such a new and yet convincing way that the reader is forced to experience simultaneously a shock of surprise and a sense of recognition. In interpreting these works, Benardete never repeats himself, never foists an alien schema upon the text, and never merely rests upon the laurels of an insight previously won. Yet, and this is one of the most admirable aspects of the book, despite the range of their topics and the individuality of each interpretation, the essays exhibit a rare unity of intellectual purpose. They constitute an exploration of a single terrain of reflection which includes, on the one hand, the character and meaning of Socrates’ “turn to the speeches” or his “second sailing” and, on the other, the setting and preconditions of that turn displayed in the works of the Greek poets.