Plato's Laughter: Socrates as Satyr and Comical Hero (SUNY series in Ancient Greek Philosophy)

Counters the long-standing, solemn interpretation of Plato’s dialogues with one centered on the philosophical and pedagogical significance of Socrates as a comic figure. Plato was described as a boor and it was said that he never laughed out loud. Yet his dialogues abound with puns, jokes, and humor. Sonja Madeleine Tanner argues that in Plato’s dialogues Socrates plays a comical hero who draws heavily from the tradition of comedy in ancient Greece, but also reforms laughter to be applicable to all persons and truly shaming to none. Socrates introduces a form of self-reflective laughter that encourages, rather than stifles, philosophical inquiry. Laughter in the dialogues—both explicit and implied—suggests a view of human nature as incongruous with ourselves, simultaneously falling short of, and superseding, our own capacities. What emerges is a picture of human nature that bears a striking resemblance to Socrates’ own, laughable depiction, one inspired by Dionysus, but one that remains ultimately intractable. The book analyzes specific instances of laughter and the comical from the Apology, Laches, Charmides, Cratylus, Euthydemus, and the Symposium to support this, and to further elucidate the philosophical consequences of recognizing Plato’s laughter. Sonja Madeleine Tanner is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and the author of In Praise of Plato’s Poetic Imagination. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction 12 The Superiority Theory of Laughter 18 Playful and Consequential Laughter 22 The Incongruity Theory of Laughter 23 The Chapter Breakdown 25 Chapter 1 The Apology of Socrates: Is Socrates a Comical Hero? 32 The Comical Apology 35 Socrates and the Homeric Hero 39 Socrates and the Traits of Comical Heroes 46 Humanity as Laughable and Self-Directed Laughter 49 Chapter 2 The Laches’s Comical Structure and “The Refined Thinkers Who Are Really Poor” 54 The Laches’s Comical Structure 57 Lysimachus as a Comical Figure 63 Nicias as a Comical Figure 65 Stesilaus as a Comical Figure 68 Laches as a Comical Figure 70 Courage, Laughter, and Self-Knowledge 76 Conclusion 82 Chapter 3 Tumbling Down to Earth: Laughter, Limitation, and Self-Knowledge in Plato’s Charmides 86 Laughter on the Bench 89 Tragic and Comic Laughter 90 Socratic versus Critian Sōphrosynē: Theory and Practice 98 Conclusion 108 Chapter 4 Naming the Nameless: Logos, Laughter, and Self-Forgetting 114 Laughter and Logos in the Cratylus 117 Laughter and False Speaking in the Euthydemus 123 Logos and the Satirical 133 Chapter 5 Bawdy Politics: Satyrical Laughter and Self-Knowledge in the Symposium 144 Aristophanes’s Hiccups 149 Socrates as Satyr 158 Conclusion 176 Conclusion: Ponēria, Self-Knowledge, and Comical, Platonic Optimism 182 Notes 190 Works Consulted 226 Index 244 La 4e de couv. indique : "Plato was described as a boor and it was said that he never laughed out loud. Yet his dialogues abound with puns, jokes, and humor. Sonja Madeleine Tanner argues that in Plato's dialogues Socrates plays a comical hero who draws heavily from the tradition of comedy in ancient Greece, but also reforms laughter to be applicable to all persons and truly shaming to none. Socrates introduces a form of self-reflective laughter that encourages, rather than stifles, philosophical inquiry. Laughter in the dialogues--both explicit and implied--suggests a view of human nature as incongruous with ourselves, simultaneously falling short of, and superseding, our own capacities. What emerges is a picture of human nature that bears a striking resemblance to Socrates' own, laughable depiction, one inspired by Dionysus, but one that remains ultimately intractable. The book analyzes specific instances of laughter and the comical from the Apology, Laches, Charmides, Cratylus, Euthydemus, and the Symposium to support this, and to further elucidate the philosophical consequences of recognizing Plato's laughter." "Plato was described as a boor and it was said that he never laughed out loud. Yet his dialogues abound with puns, jokes, and humor. Sonja Madeleine Tanner argues that in Plato's dialogues Socrates plays a comical hero who draws heavily from the tradition of comedy in ancient Greece, but also reforms laughter to be applicable to all persons and truly shaming to none. Socrates introduces a form of self-reflective laughter that encourages, rather than stifles, philosophical inquiry. Laughter in the dialogues - both explicit and implied - suggests a view of human nature as incongruous with ourselves, simultaneously falling short of, and superseding, our own capacities. What emerges is a picture of human nature that bears a striking resemblance to Socrates' own, laughable depiction, one inspired by Dionysus, but one that remains ultimately intractable. The book analyzes specific instances of laughter and the comical from the Apology, Laches, Charmides, Cratylus, Euthydemus, and the Symposium to support this, and to further elucidate the philosophical consequences of recognizing Plato's laughter"--Back cover