Thursday, March 9, 2017
One thing I have really been interested in while reading Plato is how much should we look at the context someone is writing in to examine their ideas? Does it take away from the writings themselves if we examine the writer too much? I personally wish that I knew more about the history of Athens because I think it would help us to understand the way they speak better. Furthermore, it would help to understand more about the social hierarchy of ancient Athens.
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A lot of literary criticism in the past hundred years or so has stressed the need to take a text entirely on its own merits, to look for how the text itself speaks without making any unnecessary reference to the author. But it wouldn't be helpful to completely disregard historical context (or else we'd never know that the some of the young Athenians in the Republic are destined to join the 30 tyrants, an extremely important point); what we need to do is seek out the context that is useful to us in actually defining and interpreting the text. I think we do lose something when we look at the author too closely, and we need to be mindful of over-interpreting their intent in a work and instead just look to the text.
ReplyDeleteThe original intention of an author tends to be locked away behind epistemological barriers.
ReplyDeleteExegetical resources like (social convention at the time)(the social hierarchy of ancient Athens)(etc.) divulge not only insight towards the author, but also the significance of patterns within text.
Over-interpretation also operates in service of interpretation, as it reveals in time the predispositions we are imposing upon any given work. Noticing, for example, that to you (every piece of literature is a Marxist critique regardless of context)(every poem you come across seems to be a feminist manifesto) may allow an avenue for greater attention towards one's own preferences/critical stances.
I appreciate your point here. I also find myself occasionally distracted while reading Plato's dialogues when I consider the complexity of Socrates character. I wish that Socrates wrote his own philosophy as opposed to his students, such as Plato and Xenophon.
ReplyDeleteI think we should always look at the sentiments of the time, but I also don't think that in doing so we should give every writer a pass if the work blatantly immoral. So Gone With the Wind is still racist even through it was set in a time where half the country still believed in slavery. It doesn't take much to realize that treating people like chattel is wrong.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think by knowing the culture we can understand the text on a deeper level. We can more readily understand the intricacies
and delve into a deeper understanding. However, with texts like Plato's Dialogues I think you can still read them and take a great deal from them because a lot of what he is talking about is universal and timeless.