Plato and the Power of Images

Plato Is Well Known Both For The Harsh Condemnations Of Images And Image-making Poets That Appear In His Dialogues And For The Vivid And Intense Imagery That He Himself Uses In His Matchless Prose. Through Their Resemblance To True Reality, Images Have The Power To Move Their Viewers To Action And To Change Themselves, But Because Of Their Distance From True Reality, That Power Always Remains Problematic. Two Recurrent Problems Addressed Here Are How An Image Resembles What It Represents And How To Avoid Mistaking That Image For What It Represents. Plato And The Power Of Images Comprises Twelve Chapters On The Ways Plato Has Used Images, And The Ways We Could, Or Should, Understand Their Status As Images. Front Matter / Pierre Destrée And Radcliffe G. Edmonds -- Introduction: The Power—and The Problems—of Plato’s Images / Pierre Destrée And Radcliffe G. Edmonds -- Alcibiades’ Eikôn Of Socrates And The Platonic Text: Symp. 215a–222d / Andrew Ford -- The Image Of Achilles In Plato’s Symposium / Elizabeth Belfiore -- The Power And Ambivalence Of A Beautiful Image In Plato And The Poets / Francisco Gonzalez -- Putting Him On A Pedestal: (re)collection And The Use Of Images In Plato’s Phaedrus / Radcliffe G. Edmonds -- Images Of Oneself In Plato / Christopher Moore -- Perspectivism In Plato’s Views Of The Gods / Gerd Van Riel -- The Power Of Plato’s Cave / Grace Ledbetter -- Political Images Of The Soul / Olivier Renaut -- The Ship Of State And The Subordination Of Socrates / A.g. Long -- Plato’s Goat-stags And The Uses Of Comparison / Kathryn Morgan -- Poetry And The Image Of The Tyrant In Plato’s Republic / Penelope Murray -- The Tripartite Soul As Metaphor / Douglas Cairns -- Indices / Pierre Destrée And Radcliffe G. Edmonds. Edited By Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii, Pierre Destree. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.