Ronna Burger – författare

What is the good life for a human being? Aristotle's exploration of this question in the "Nicomachean Ethics" has established it as a founding work of Western philosophy, though its teachings have long puzzled readers and provoked spirited discussion. Adopting a radically new point of view, Ronna Burger deciphers some of the most perplexing conundrums of this influential treatise by approaching it as Aristotle's dialogue with the Platonic Socrates. Tracing the argument of the Ethics as it emerges through that approach, Burger's careful reading shows how Aristotle represents ethical virtue from the perspective of those devoted to it while standing back to examine its assumptions and implications.

What is the good life for a human being? Aristotle's exploration of this question in the "Nicomachean Ethics" has established it as a founding work of Western philosophy, though its teachings have long puzzled readers and provoked spirited discussion. Adopting a radically new point of view, Ronna Burger deciphers some of the most perplexing conundrums of this influential treatise by approaching it as Aristotle's dialogue with the Platonic Socrates. Tracing the argument of the Ethics as it emerges through that approach, Burger's careful reading shows how Aristotle represents ethical virtue from the perspective of those devoted to it while standing back to examine its assumptions and implications.

This volume brings together Seth Benardete’s studies of Hesiod, Homer, and Greek tragedy, eleven Platonic dialogues, and Aristotle’s Metaphysics.The Argument of the Action spans four decades of Seth Benardete’s work, documenting its impressive range. Benardete’s philosophic reading of the poets and his poetic reading of the philosophers share a common ground, guided by the key he found in the Platonic dialogue: probing the meaning of speeches embedded in deeds, he uncovers the unifying intention of the work by tracing the way it unfolds through a movement of its own. Benardete’s original interpretations of the classics are the fruit of this discovery of the “argument of the action.”

Since antiquity the Phaedo has been considered the source of “the twin pillars of Platonism” – the theory of ideas and the immortality of the soul. Tracing the movement of the argument through the work as a whole, Burger is led to a radical rethinking of those doctrines. That movement is indicated by the structure of the dialogue, divided in two halves by a central interlude in which Socrates warns against the great danger of “misology,” loss of trust in human reason.  The discussion that follows, with that danger in mind, brings about a transformation in the understanding of knowledge, the ideas, the soul, death, and immortality. With this "second sailing," as Socrates calls it, the Platonism presented in the Phaedo emerges as precisely the target of which the dialogue is a critique.This revised and expanded edition includes a new Preface, “The Death of Socrates and the Post-Socratic Schools,” and an essay, “On Plato's Euthyphro.”“This is a comprehensive study of the Phaedo, thoroughly researched, and sparkling with insights into the text.” – Paul Woodruff, University of Texas“Burger has a wonderfully fertile mind and supports her imaginative thesis with a close reading, extremely sensitive to nuance.” – Jerome Schiller, The Journal of the History of Philosophy 1986"On Plato's Euthyphro" presents a more thoughtful and careful analysis of the dialogue than any previous full-length commentary. -- Lewis Fallis, Interpretation 2016