Essays

Horace C.I.xv

– "Horace C.I.xv." Manuscript, undated. In The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: Four poems of Horace’s first book seem to be so placed as to represent a proportion. The fifth and sixth seem to be in the same relation to one another as the fourteenth and fifteenth; and the fifth and fourteenth in turn seem to be as related… More

Aeneid

– "Aeneid." Manuscript, undated. In The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.

On Reading Pindar Platonically

– "On Reading Pindar Platonically." Manuscript undated. In The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: At the beginning of the Phaedrus, Socrates, in order to hear about Lysias’ speech, has to accompany Phaedrus on his constitutional; and, in response to Phaedrus’ oblique question as to whether he has the leisure, he scrambles slightly… More

Aeschylus’ Agamemnon: The Education of the Chorus

– "Aechylus's Agamemnon: The Education of the Chorus." Manuscript, undated.  In The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: According to one interpretation of the Oresteia, the ground of Athenian democracy is the divine condonation of matricide; but a stricter interpretation would be that the Olympian gods allow the people to judge for themselves provided they… More

Freedom, Grace and Necessity

– "Freedom, Grace and Necessity." Freedom and the Human Person, edited by Richard Velkley. Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2007. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: Before the start of the Isthmian games at Corinth in 196 B.C., a Roman herald proclaimed that with the conquest of philop of Macedon all the cities of Greece and Asia Minor were to be free, exempt from tribute, and under their own laws. The crowd was… More

The Plan of Odysseus and the Plot of the Philoctetes

– "The Plan of Odysseus and the Plot of Philoctetes," Epoche 7, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 133-150. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: Odysseus is the Cinna of tragedy, with a “head to contrive, and a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief” In Philoctetes Odysseus presents himself as being as resourceful as he is adaptable: he can become whomever he wants… More

Derrida and Plato

– "Derrida and Plato." Lecture delivered at NYU, in a series "Derrida and his Non-Contemporaries," October 19, 2000. In The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: The French for nothing rien comes from the Latin for thing rem; Derrida suggests that in thought the reverse is true. This is one of the very large claims Derrida makes, but the evidence he compiles for them is fragmentary, elusive, and… More

On Heraclitus

– "On Heraclitus." Review of Metaphysics 53, No. 3 (March 2000): 613-33.
Excerpt: Lucretius, after he has expounded that nothing comes out of nothing and nothing goes into nothing, and there are only bodies and void, turns to three pre-Socratics: Heraclitus, Empedocles, and Anaxagoras. He characterizes Heraclitus, clarus ob… More

Strauss on Plato

– "Strauss on Plato," University of Chicago lecture, 1993. In The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: “What philosophy is seems to be inseparable from the question of how to read Plato. Almost no philosopher after Plato wrote at length about philosophy, and from antiquity at least there are few notices that inform us about the principles of… More

Plato’s Laches: A Question of Definition

– Plato's Laches: A Question of Definition," ms. 1992. In The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: The Laches records the meeting between Socrates and the inglorious sons of Thucydides and Aristides, on the one hand, and on the other, the now-famous general Laches and Nicias. They meet sometime after 424 B.C., the battle of Delium, and before 418… More

Protagoras’ Myth and Logos

– "Protagoras' Myth and Logos," ms. 1988. In The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: “In general, a speaker should not promise more than he can deliver, nor should he present conclusions as the setting for his argument, but in this case, where a part of a Platonic dialogue is to be examined, it is necessary to say something… More

The Furies of Aeschylus

– "The Furies of Aeschylus," ms. 1982. In The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: “The Greek word for “right” is dike. Dike can mean “punishment,” but it never means “acquittal.” Dikastike – the science of right – is the art of punishment. “To condemn”… More

Plato’s Phaedo

– "Plato's Phaedo," ms. 1980. In The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: I wish to discuss four things in Plato’s Phaedo. First, the intention of the dialogue as a whole; second, the plan or structure of the Phaedo; third, some arguments of the Phaedo; and fourth, the reason for the structure of the dialogue. Of… More

Metamorphosis and Conversion: Apuleius’s Metamorphoses

– "Metamorphosis and Conversion: Apuleius's Metamorphoses." In Literary Imagination, Ancient and Modern: Essays in Honor of David Grene, edited by Todd Breyfogle, 155-176. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: In a book called Transformations, which we learn is a “Greekish tale” (fibula Graecanica) told by an educated Greek in poor Latin, the two biggest surprises are the almost simultaneous revelations that the narrator is the North African… More

On the Timaeus

– "On the Timaeus." Lecture at The Hannah Arendt/Reiner Schurmann Memorial Symposium in Political Philosophy: "The Philosophy of Leo Strauss," New School for Social Research, 1999. In The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: Thirty years ago, when I submitted a paper to Leo Strauss on Timaeus’s science fiction, he wrote back to say that Plato’s Timaeus for him has always been sealed with 7 seals, but he thought he saw two things clearly: Timaeus’s… More

The First Crisis in First Philosophy

– "The First Crisis in First Philosophy," Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 18, No. 1 (1995: 237-248, 1999. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: Virtually everyone knows that Aristotle sometimes lies. His account of the pre-Socratics in the first book of the Metaphysics leaves out of account everything that does not suit his scheme, the gradual disclosure of the four causes, compelled, as he… More

Plato, True and False

– "Plato, True and False," Review of Plato: Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper. The New Criterion, February 1998: 70-74. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: “To have everything of Plato in one volume, regardless of whether or not it has been ascribed to him correctly, is a fortunate event: one can survey all at once the man himself and his history, what he certainly wrote and what others foisted on… More

Review of Michael Tanner, Nietzsche: A Very of Short Introduction

– Review of Michael Tanner, Nietzsche: A Very Short Introduction. In The Great Ideas Today, 454-58. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 1997. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: His very short study of Nietzsche is very long on the opinions of the author without conveying much of the thought of Nietzsche himself. Michael tanner, who teachers philosophy at Cambridge and writes on opera, speaks of Nietzsche once as a… More

Plato’s Theaetetus: On the Way of the Logos

– "Plato's Theaetetus: On the Way of the Logos," Review of Metaphysics, 51, no. 1 (September 1997): 25-53. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: The opening of the Theaetetus is curious. The report we have of another opening of nearly the same length indicates that it was always a curiosity. If both openings are Plato’s, and the rest of the dialogue they preface were not different, then… More

The Play of Truth

– "The Play of Truth." Review of R.B. Rutherford, The Art of Plato: Ten Essays in Platonic Interpretation. Boston Book Review, November 10, 1995. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: R.B. Rutherford wishes to restore to the understanding of Plato what Cicero already knew and practiced in his own dialogues. In a passage not cited by Rutherford, Cicero writes that with Plato as his guide he followed what he thought was… More

On Plato’s Lysis

– "On Plato's Lysis," ms. 1994. In The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: In the Lysis Plato has Socrates present himself at his sleaziest. He reports how he undertook to pimp for the silly Hippothales and succeeded first in smashing the false pride of Lysis and then in breaking down the distinction between love and… More

On Plato’s Symposium

– "On Plato's Symposium," Munich: Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung, 1994. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: “Some platonic dialogues are bound closely to the life and times of Socrates, and some are set at a particular time of day. The Phaedo and Symposium satisfy both criteria; they are also non-Socratically reported dialogues, and both contain… More

The Poet-Merchant and the Stranger from the Sea

– "The Poet-Merchant and the Stranger from the Sea." The Greeks and the Sea, 59-65, ed. Speros Vryonis. New York: Aristede Caratzas Publishers, 1993. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: The sea has both a surface and a depth. It thus lends itself to be the paradigm for the human soul, which, as the Chorus of Sophocles’ Antigone says, when stirred brings to the surface the blackness within. The soul retains the very nature of… More

The Right, the True, and the Beautiful

– "The Right, the True, and the Beautiful," Glotta, 41 nos. 1-2 (1963): 54-62. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: Were there a gap in our manuscript between two questions of Socrates, we should not now be able to say which stereotyped phrase was most suitable. Was Plato equally perplexed? Are his “rights”, “trues”, and “fines”… More

On Plato’s Sophist

– "On Plato's Sophist," Review of Metaphysics 46, No. 4 (June 1993): 747-780. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: Once the stranger takes over the discussion at the beginning of the Sophist, and agrees to discuss the sophist, the statesman, and the philosopher, it is hard to remember that Socrates once more, even after he had left Theaetetus completely barren,… More

The Plan of the Statesman

– "The Plan of the Statesman," Metis: Revue d'anthropologie du monde grec ancien 7, nos. 1-2 (1992): 25-47. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: It is not easy to follow the argument of the Statesman. Its difficulty seems to be due to the odd lengths of its sections, which are either too short or too long for the matter discussed. The Stranger spends two pages on what Socrates spends two book… More

Cicero’s de legibus I: its Plan and Intention

– "Cicero's de legibus I: its Plan and Intention," American Journal of Philology 108, no. 2 (1987): 295-309. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Although the Laws’ transitions from one topic to another are managed adroitly if one considers them dialogically, their thematic purpose is obscure. It is easy to see how historiography yields to legal philosophy, and that the poorness of Roman… More

On Interpreting Plato’s Charmides

– "On Interpreting Plato's Charmides," New School Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 11 (1986): 9-36. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: The Charmides is about sophrosyne, moderation and self-knowledge; but part of Socrates’ original question was about the state of philosophy in Athens; and since the self-knowledge is presumably the mark of Socrates’ philosophizing, the… More

Review of J. Dudley, Gott und Theoria bei Aristoteles: Die metaphysische Grundlage der Nikomachischen Ethik.

– Review of J. Dudley, Gott Und Theoria bei Aristotles: Die metaphysische Grundlage der Nikocachischen Ethik. The Review of Metaphysics 37, no. 1 (September 1983): 112-13. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: This short book, a German translation of an unpublished English version, with 95 pages of text and 114 of notes, consists of three main chapters: I. The nature of the complete human life is similar to the nature of God’s; II. The activity of… More

Physics and Tragedy: On Plato’s Cratylus

– "Physics and Tragedy: On Plato's Cratylus," Ancient Philosophy 1, no, 2 (1981): 140-172. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: The Cratylus seems to be a caricature of a Platonic dialogue. It gives us Socrates as seen in the distorting mirror of an alien inspiration. It begans as a farce and ends as a tragedy: Socrates finally invokes the “ideas” like so… More

On Greek Tragedy

– "On Greek Tragedy," in The Great Ideas Today, 102-143. Chicago: Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1980. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: Of all literary forms, tragedy and comedy alone seem to make a natural pair. They are natural in that they designate something not merely in letters but in life, and they are a part in that, taken together, they seem to comprehend the whole of life,… More

Leo Strauss’s The City and Man

– "Leo Strauss's The City and Man," Political Science Reviewer 8 (1978): 1-20. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: Leo Strauss’s The City and Man seems at first to be a straightforward continuation of all his previous work: the articulation of the theological-political problem. Event he writers he examines here are the same as those who were most present… More

On Wisdom and Philosophy: The First Two Chapters of Aristotle’s Metaphysics A

– "On Wisdom and Philosophy: The First Two Chapters of Aristotle's Metaphysics A," Review of Metaphysics, 32, No. 2 (Dec 1978): 205-215. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: “Each of Aristotle’s three most theoretical writings begins with a critique of his predecessors but whereas the second books of his Physics and On Soul present his own definitions of nature and soul respectively, the second book of the… More

The Grammar of Being

– "The Grammar of Being," Review of Metaphysics 30, No. 3 (1977): 486-496. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: “Charles H. Kahn’s The Verb “Be” in Ancient Greek is the sixth part of a series edited by JWM Verhaar with the overall title, The Verb “Be” and its Synonyms: Philosophical and Grammatical Studies; but it differs… More

Euripides’ Hippolytus

– "Euripides' Hippolytus." In Essays in Honor of Jacob Klein, 21-47, Annapolis: St. John's College Press, 1976.  Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
“Euripides’ Hippolutus” provides a rich field of observations. Benardete addresses the inner tension between opposing traits of the characters, thereby putting them — and the man/woman theme of the play — into sharpest… More

Aristotle’s De Anima III.3–5

– "Aristotle's de anima III.3-5," Review of Metaphysics, 28, no. 4 (June 1975): 611-622. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Aristotle’s De Anima is not a treatise on the human soul. It is as silent about the virtues as it is about memory and empeiria. The soul is mainly considered apart form time and the awareness of time. All the emphasis falls on the now, in which the… More

A Reading of Sophocles’ Antigone

– "A Reading of Sophocles' Antigone, In Three Parts: Interpretation 4, No. 3 (Spring 1975): 148-196; 5, no. 1 (Summer 1975): 1-55; 5, no. 2 (Winter 1975): 148-184. Reprinted as Sacred Transgressions: A Reading of Sophocles' Antigone. 1999.
Excerpt: “Antigone meets Ismene outside the gates of the royal palace. She usurps for the planning of her crime the place Creon had designated for his own meeting with the elders. As they converse without any chance of being overheard, they must be… More

Memorial Speech for Leo Strauss

– Memorial Speech for Leo Strauss, New School for Social Research, 1974. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: “Leo Strauss was a philosopher. He hid this fact as much as he showed it by being a transhistorical historian of philosophy. He was more historically accurate than the “historians of ideas” for the sake of recovering the human horizon whose… More

On Plato’s Timaeus and Timaeus’ Science Fiction

– "On Plato's Timaeus and Timaeus' Science Fiction," Interpretation 2, No. 1 (Summer 1971): 21-63. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: “Socrates counts out loud. He makes himself out to be somewhat ridiculous. He does not say, “There are three of you; there should be four.” Nor does he say, “We are all here except so-and-so. Where is he, Timaeus?”… More

The Aristeia of Diomedes and the Plot of the Iliad

– "The Aristeia of Diomedes and the Plot of the Iliad," Agon 2 (1968): 10-38. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: “Blunt Ajax states the paradox of heroic virtue: “Alas, even a fool would know that Zeus himself aids the trojans: the spears of all, no matter whether good or bad do hurl them, hit their target: Zeus makes all go straight.”… More

Hesiod’s Works and Days: A First Reading

– "Hesiod's Works and Days: A First Reading," Agon 1 (1967): 150-174. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: “Hesiod’s Works and Days is divided into nine sections. 1) 1-10 Proemium; 2)11-41 Two kinds of Eris; 3) 42-201 Two accounts of man’s misery; 4) 202-8 Justice and the city; 5) 286-341 Hesiod’s counsel; 6) 342-82 ta oikeia; 7)… More

XRH and DEI in Plato and Others

– “XRH and DEI in Plato and Others,” Glotta 43, nos. 3-4 (1965): 285-98. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.

The Crimes and Arts of Prometheus

– "The Crimes and Arts of Prometheus," Rheinisches Museum fur Philologie 107, No. 2, (1964): 126-139. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: “Most recent scholarship on Aeschylus’ Prometheus has been devoted to the question of Zeus and the plan of the whole trilogy. And in a way that is understandable. Portions of the play are so plainly obscure — the wanderings of Io,… More

Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus

– "Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus." in Ancients and Moderns, 1-15, New York, Basic Books, 1964. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: “The crippled Oedipus, we must imagine, appears before the Thebans leaning on a staff, a staff that indicates as much his present authority as the use he once made of it to kill his father. The staff or scepter is thusy triply significant: a… More

Some Misquotations of Homer in Plato

– "Some Misquotations of Homer in Plato," Phronesis 8, no. 2 (1963): 173-78. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: “Plato often has Socrates and his other characters quote Homer. Their quotations for the most part exactly agree with our vulgate, but sometimes they differ. The most recent and careful study of these variants (La Barbe, Le’Homere De… More

Eidos and Diaeresis in Plato’s Statesman

– "Eidos and Diaeresis in Plato's Statesman," Philologus 107, nos. 3-4 (1963): 193-226. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: When the Stranger summarizes the set of divisions which presents the statesmen as a ruler of two-footed swine, he omits the differentia, even though he had gone to some trouble to introduce it. According to Campbell, this imprecision and another… More

Achilles and the Iliad

– "Achilles and the Iliad," Hermes 91, No. 1 (1963): 1-16. Reprinted in The Argument of the Action, 2000.
Excerpt: Achilles is a hero in a world of heroes; he is of the same cast as they, thought we might call him the first impression that has caught each point more finely than later copies. He holds within himself all the heroic virtues that are given singly to… More

Plato’s Sophist 231b1–7

– "Plato's Sophist 231b1-7," Phronesis 5, no. 3 (1960): 129-139. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.