Description
Book SynopsisKnowing Persons is an original study of Plato''s account of personhood. For Plato, embodied persons are images of a disembodied ideal. The ideal person is a knower. Hence, the lives of embodied persons need to be understood according to Plato''s metaphysics of imagery.For Gerson, Plato''s account of embodied personhood is not accurately conflated with Cartesian dualism. Plato''s dualism is more appropriately seen in the contrast between the ideal disembodied person and the embodied one than in the contrast between mind or soul and body.This study argues that Plato''s analysis of personhood is intended to cohere with his two-world metaphysics as well as a radical separation of knowledge and belief. Gerson demonstrates that Plato''s account of persons plays a key role not just in his theory of mind, but in his theory of knowledge, his metaphysics, and his ethics. A proper understanding of Plato''s account of persons must therefore place it in the context of his doctrines in these areas.
Trade ReviewReview from previous edition for those scholars interested in the concepts of subjectivity, person, and human being in Plato's works, Knowing Persons is an excellent account and resource on these topics * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
... an interesting reading of Plato on persons and on knowledge. * Lesley Brown, Times Literary Supplement *
Table of Contents1. SOULS AND PERSONS ; 2. IMMORTALITY AND PERSONS IN PHAEDO ; 3. DIVIDED PERSONS: REPUBLIC AND PHAEDRUS ; 4. KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF IN REPUBLIC ; 5. THEAETETUS: WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE? ; 6. PERSONHOOD IN THE LATER DIALOGUES ; 7. CONCLUDING REMARKS
