"School of Athens" (1511) by Raphael (1483–1520); Vatican. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Philosophy in Past and Present, Near and Far

In this issue we turn for the first time to philosophy, first looking back to Socrates and Plato before analyzing the effects of some very contemporary circumstances.

• Why did readers in the second century CE think it was important to pay attention to the order in which one reads the dialogues of Plato?
• Is there any way to imagine that Plato was actually present when Socrates died? If he really was there, why would he want to cover his tracks, as it were?
• Does physical closeness —in scarce supply during this time of pandemic— facilitate moral behavior, or is it irrelevant or even detrimental to the moral life?

Community discussion of how Plato's dialogues were approached centuries after they were written

Video of approximately 6 minutes.

Community discussion of the last days of Socrates as interpreted by his student Plato

Video of approximately 27 minutes.

"Extra credit" video viewing:

Watch a roundtable discussion entitled "Proximity and Ethics | Conversations on Philosophy & Ideas" featuring Bonnie Talbert (Harvard), Paul Bloom (Yale), Jessie Prinz (City University of New York), and Julia Wise (Center for Effective Altruism), and moderated by Nicolas Prevelakis (Harvard) and Dimitri Halikias (Harvard). Video of 1 hour 45 minutes.

Learn more about the Hellenic Studies Folios and the previous instalments of the series.