Plato's Critique of Impure Reason: On Goodness and Truth in the Republic

by D.C. Schindler

Plato's Critique of Impure Reason offers a dramatic interpretation of the Republic, at the center of which lies a novel reading of the historical person of Socrates as the "real image" of the good. Schindler argues that a full response to the attack on reason introduced by Thrasymachus at the dialogue's outset awaits the revelation of goodness as the cause of truth. This revelation is needed because the good is what enables the mind to know and makes things knowable. When we read Socrates' display of the good against the horizon of the challenges posed by sophistry, otherwise disparate aspects of Plato's masterpiece turn out to play essential roles in the production of an integrated whole. In this book, D. C. Schindler begins with a diagnosis of the crisis of reason in contemporary culture as a background to the study of the Republic. He then sets out a philosophical interpretation of the dialogue in five chapters: an analysis of Book 1 that shows the inherent violence and dogmatism of skepticism; a reading of goodness as cause of both being and appearance; a discussion of the dramatic reversals in the images Socrates uses for the idea of the good; an exploration of the role of the person of Socrates in the Republic; and a confrontation between the "defenselessness" of philosophy and the violence of sophistry. Finally, in a substantial coda, the book presents a new interpretation of the old quarrel between philosophy and art through an analysis of Book 10.

Though based on a close reading of the text, Plato's Critique of Impure Reason always interprets the arguments with a view to fundamental human problems, and so will be valuable not only to Plato scholars but to any reader with general philosophical interests.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
D. C. Schindler, associate professor of philosophy in the Humanities Department at Villanova University, is the translator or co-translator of twelve books including Hans Urs von Balthasar's Love Alone Is Credible, and author of Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Dramatic Structure of Truth.
PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:
"In this wonderful new study of Plato's Republic , Schindler argues that the key to interpreting the dialogue lies in the twofold nature of goodness. . . . A lengthy introduction diagnoses the intellectual crisis of the postmodern academy and offers as the cure an epistemology that blends the absolute and the relative, such as Plato accomplishes in the Republic . Schindler's wide familiarity with Platonic scholarship is particularly impressive. . . . Highly recommended." ― P. Coby, Choice

Genres: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Politics, Catholic

358 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

Professor David Christopher Schindler is Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute, Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America in 2001, with a dissertation on the philosophy of Hans Urs von Balthasar. He taught at Villanova University from 2001-2013, first as a teaching fellow in the Philosophy Department, and then in the Department of Humanities, where he received tenure in 2007. He received an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship to do research in Munich from 2007-2008. Professor Schindler is a translator of French and German and has served as an editor of Communio: International Catholic Review since 2002.

Reviews

[JR Snow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real, Good Philosophers go back down into the cave.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional treatment of Plato's twofold ascent/descent of reason required by the centrality of the good. Schindler eloquently guides the reader along the dialogue of the Republic and the Platonic corpus, remedying the one-sidedness of both absolutism and relativism by letting the tensions of each fully manifest themselves without resolving them prematurely. In doing so, he shows that Plato's aim, not only in the Republic but also in his entire works, is to have the philosopher restore relative appearances by transcending them absolutely through his vision of the good, only to return to them in order to reveal their signifying value as images pointing to a reality beyond themselves, the reality which the philosopher himself has seen and lives by.

As a diocesan priest and lover of wisdom, I found this book of great value in its challenge to live philosophically, that is, according to the whole ('catholic') vision of reality as it is given, and not according to a partial, self-enclosed manipulation of reality ('sophistic'), and it has provided me an insightful way to know and express this difference. The ecstasis of reason means this way of life is open to all, and therefore public. In a society that irrationally relativizes the absolute and absolutizes the relative (thereby making public discourse about anything other than trivialities impossible), Plato's Critique of Impure Reason traces the path forward to restore reason at a most opportune time. I highly recommend Schindler's book especially to diocesan priests & seminarians, educators of the youth, judges, lawmakers and politicians who are all engaged daily in the impossible polemics of our modern republic.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

How I wish I could have the words that would convince anyone to read this absolute masterpiece, so that my wonder could be shared! Only a true lover of Plato could have ascended to receive what is now revealed here, and only a great mind could have put it down on paper so beautifully.

[Kenny Lowry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've read