{"product_id":"trials-of-reason-david-wolfsdorf-9780195327328","title":"Trials of Reason: Plato and the Crafting of Philosophy","description":"Scholarship on Plato's dialogues persistently divides its focus between the dramatic or literary and the philosophical or argumentative dimensions of the texts. But this hermeneutic division of labor is naïve, for Plato's arguments are embedded in dramatic dialogues and developed through complex, largely informal exchanges between literary characters. Consequently, it is questionable how readers can even attribute arguments and theses to the author himself. The answer to this question lies in transcending the scholarly divide and integrating the literary and philosophical dimensions of the texts. This is the task of \u003cem\u003eTrials of Reason\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe study focuses on a set of fourteen so-called early dialogues, beginning with a methodological framework that explains how to integrate the argumentation and the drama in these texts. Unlike most canonical philosophical works, the early dialogues do not merely express the results of the practice of philosophy. Rather, they dramatize philosophy as a kind of motivation, the desire for knowledge of goodness. They dramatize philosophy as a discursive practice, motivated by this desire and ideally governed by reason. And they dramatize the trials to which desire and reason are subject, that is, the difficulties of realizing philosophy as a form of motivation, a practice, and an epistemic achievement. In short, \u003cem\u003eTrials of Reason\u003c\/em\u003e argues that Plato's early dialogues are as much works of meta-philosophy as philosophy itself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e David Wolfsdorf\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0195327322\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780195327328\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/22\/2008\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 296\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.20lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.00d","brand":"David Wolfsdorf","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":50593911406847,"sku":"9780195327328","price":145.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/trials-of-reason-david-wolfsdorf-9780195327328","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}