The machinery of the collapse: on Republic VIII

History of Political Thought 23 (1):22-29 (2002)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

I link together the nuptial number, that ‘whole geometric number', represented as the areas of two distinct figures -- a square and a rectangle -- with the ‘triangles in ascending order'. I locate an indeterminancy in the conditions for the production of the ‘divine creature', which I take to be a philosopher , and suggest a new interpretation of the breakdown of the eugenics programme. I try to show how and why that breakdown is metaphysically necessary. I argue that Plato uses mathematical indeterminancy not only to suggest that the decline is necessary, but also to issue an epistemic warning to us, to the effect that we should avoid trying to come to a philosophical understanding of forms by focusing on even very fine particulars

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 103,388

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-11-24

Downloads
2 (#1,907,544)

6 months
2 (#1,294,541)

Historical graph of downloads

Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Rod Jenks
University of Portland

Citations of this work

Knowledge and Power in Plato’s Political Thought.Thom Brooks - 2006 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 14 (1):51 – 77.
Plato, Hegel, and Democracy.Thom Brooks - 2006 - Hegel Bulletin 27 (1-2):24-50.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references