Our faculty member G. S. Bowe published in the reputed history journal Vestnik drevnei istorii

by Zeynep Kalaycıoğlu | Tem 25, 2022
G.S.Bowe, "Anaxagoras and Plato: From Natural Science to Socratic Humanism," Vestnik drevnei istorii 82 (2022)

G.S.Bowe, "Anaxagoras and Plato: From Natural Science to Socratic Humanism," Vestnik drevnei istorii 82 (2022)

The research offers some considerations that may add to a preponderance of evidence for those who wish to see the dramatic date of Plato's Republic as 429. These considerations are of two kinds. One significant factor that is often overlooked with regard to a date of 429 for the Republic is that it is very close to the date of the death of Pericles (429) Anaxagoras and the birth of Plato (both usually affixed to in or around 427). A second significant factor worthy of remark is that while there has been much focus on the date for the dramatic setting, fixed for good reasons at the date of the inaugural festival of Bendis, less attention has been paid to why Plato chose this unusual setting. In what follows, I wish to argue that Plato sees the Republic as marking the passing of the old natural science conception of philosophy represented by Anaxagoras, and the dawning of a new era of humanist philosophy that he is embarking on, marked by the transition from Republic I to Republic II. Again while it is not my purpose to argue at length for the dramatic date of 429 along traditional lines, I believe that the considerations which follow add a significant and different dimension in support of that date.

https://ras.jes.su/vdi/s032103910017522-7-1-en