Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T07:29:58.727Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Without Foundations: Plato's Lysis and Postmodern Friendship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2010

PAUL W. LUDWIG
PAUL W. LUDWIG*
Affiliation:
St. John's College
*
Paul W. Ludwig is Tutor, St. John's College, P.O. Box 2800, Annapolis, MD 21404 (paul.ludwig@sjca.edu).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Political theory has developed at important junctures by questioning its ontological foundations. Modern political thought begins by questioning the naturalness of human sociability. Instead of the civic friendship propounded by the ancients, modern liberals see friendship as belonging to a private sphere, whereas the state is an alliance among competitors. Postmodern theorists have extended the logic of competition to encompass private friendships, doing so, in part, by critiquing liberal foundations. Plato's account of friendship reveals surprising affinities with two such postmodern critiques. The Lysis explores what friendship would be like without ontological claims or with only negative foundations such as the power and enmity found in accounts of friendship as diverse as those of Foucault and Derrida. The Platonic/postmodern comparison offers a way of ensuring that foundational inquiry illuminates political theory and argues for a greater role for fundamental ontology than mainstream liberal theorists have yet conceded.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 104 , Issue 1 , February 2010 , pp. 134 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abizadeh, Arash. 2005. “Does Collective Identity Presuppose an Other? On the Alleged Incoherence of Global Solidarity.” American Political Science Review 99 (November): 45–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aeschines. 1958. The Speeches of Aeschines. Trans. Adams, Charles Darwin. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Loeb.Google Scholar
Aristotle. 1934. Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. Rackham, Harris. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Loeb.Google Scholar
Aristotle. 1944. Politics. Trans. Rackham, Harris. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Loeb.Google Scholar
Aristotle. 1959. The “Art” of Rhetoric. Trans. Freese, John Henry. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Loeb.Google Scholar
Aristotle. 1971. Eudemian Ethics. Trans. Rackham, Harris. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Loeb.Google Scholar
Aristotle. 1979. Metaphysics. Trans. Tredennick, Hugh. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Loeb.Google Scholar
Benardete, Seth. 2000. “On Plato's Lysis.” In The Argument of the Action: Essays on Greek Philosophy and Poetry, eds. Burger, Ronna and Davis, Michael. Chicago: The University of Chicago, 198–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolotin, David. 1979. Plato's Dialogue on Friendship. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Connolly, William E. 1991. Identity\Difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Dallmayer, Fred. 2001. “Distancing the Other: Jacques Derrida on Friendship.” In Achieving Our World: Toward a Global and Plural Democracy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 147–70.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. [1967] 1976. Of Grammatology. Trans. Spivak, Gayatri. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. [1972] 1982. “Différance.” In Margins of Philosophy. Trans. Bass, Alan. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1–28.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. 1988. “The Politics of Friendship.” The Journal of Philosophy 85 (November): 632–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. [1994] 1997. Politics of Friendship. Trans. Collins, George. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Descartes, René. [1637] 1996. Discours de la méthode. In Oeuvres de Descartes, eds. Adam, Charles and Tannery, Paul. Vol. VI. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin.Google Scholar
Diels, H., and Kranz, W., eds. 1951–52. Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. 6th ed.Berlin: Weidmann.Google Scholar
Evrigenis, Ioannis D. 2008. Fear of Enemies and Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Faraone, Christopher. 1999. Ancient Greek Love Magic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foucault, Michel. [1969] 1972. The Archaeology of Knowledge. Trans. Smith, A. M. Sheridan. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. [1975] 1995. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Trans. Sheridan, Alan. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–77, ed. Gordon, Colin. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. [1981] 1997. “Friendship as a Way of Life.” In Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth, trans. Hurley, Robert and others, ed. Rabinow, Paul. New York: The New Press, 135–40.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. [1984] 1990. The Use of Pleasure. In The History of Sexuality, trans. Hurley, Robert. Vol. 2. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas. [1651] 1992. Leviathan, ed. Tuck, Richard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Homer. 1986. Iliad. In Homeri opera, eds. Monro, David B. and Allen, Thomas W.. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Honig, Bonnie. 1993. Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. [1784] 1991a. Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose. In Kant: Political Writings, trans. Nisbet, H. B., ed. Reiss, Hans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. [1795] 1991b. Perpetual Peace. In Kant: Political Writings, trans. Nisbet, H. B., ed. Reiss, Hans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kant, Immanuel. [1797] 1996. The Metaphysics of Morals, ed. Gregor, Mary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Konstan, David. 1997. Friendship in the Classical World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lilla, Mark. 2006. The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics. New York: New York Review of Books.Google Scholar
Locke, John. [1690] 1959. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, ed. Fraser, Alexander Campbell. New York: Dover.Google Scholar
Mara, Gerald M. 1997. Socrates’ Discursive Democracy. Albany: State University of New York.Google Scholar
McCarthy, Thomas. 1988. “On the Margins of Politics.” Journal of Philosophy 85 (November): 645–48.Google Scholar
Meier, Heinrich. [1994] 1998. The Lesson of Carl Schmitt, trans. Brainard, Marcus. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mouffe, Chantal. 1993. The Return of the Political. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Mouffe, Chantal. 2000. The Democratic Paradox. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Nichols, Mary P. 2009. Socrates on Friendship and Community. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Obdrzalek, S. 2006. “Review of Penner and Rowe.” Bryn Mawr Classical Review (November, no. 35).Google Scholar
Pangle, Lorraine Smith. 2003. Aristotle and the Philosophy of Friendship. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Penner, Terry, and Rowe, Christopher. 2005. Plato's Lysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Plato. 1921. The Laws of Plato, ed. England, E. B.. 2 vols. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Plato. 1930–35. Republic. In Plato in Twelve Volumes, trans. Shorey, Paul. Vol. V–VI. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Loeb.Google Scholar
Plato. 1955. Alcibiades I, Hipparchus. In Plato in Twelve Volumes, trans. Lamb, W. R. M.. Vol. XII. Cambridge, MA: Harvard: Loeb.Google Scholar
Plato. 1975. The Statesman. In Plato in Twelve Volumes, trans. Fowler, Harold North. Vol. VIII. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Loeb.Google Scholar
Plato. 1982. Apology, Phaedo. In Plato in Twelve Volumes, trans. Fowler, Harold North. Vol. I. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Loeb.Google Scholar
Plato. 1985. Plato. Gorgias, ed. Dodds, E. R.. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon.Google Scholar
Plato. 1991. Plato. Symposium, ed. Dover, Kenneth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Popper, Karl R. 1950. The Open Society and Its Enemies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Price, A. W. 1989. Love and Friendship in Plato and Aristotle. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Belknap.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1999a. “Justice as Fairness: Political Not Metaphysical.” In John Rawls: Collected Papers, ed. Freeman, Samuel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 388–414.Google Scholar
Rawls, John. 1999b. “The Idea of Public Reason Revisited.” In John Rawls: Collected Papers, ed. Freeman, Samuel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 573–615.Google Scholar
Rorty, Richard. 1989. Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sandel, Michael. [1982] 1998. Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. [1927] 1976. The Concept of the Political, trans. Schwab, George. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Schmitt, Carl. 1991. Glossarium: Aufzeichnungen der Jahre 1947–1951, ed. von Medem, Eberhard Freiherr. Berlin: Dunker and Humblot.Google Scholar
Taylor, Charles. 1985. “Foucault on Freedom and Truth.” In Philosophy and the Human Sciences: Philosophical Papers. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 152–84.Google Scholar
Tuck, Richard. 2008. Free Riding. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Umphrey, Stewart. 1982. “Eros and Thumos.” Interpretation 10 (2–3): 353–422.Google Scholar
Vlastos, Gregory. 1981. “The Individual as an Object of Love in Plato.” In Platonic Studies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 3–42.Google Scholar
West, M. L. 1989–92. Iambi et elegi Graeci. 2nd ed. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon.Google Scholar
White, Stephen K. 1991. Political Theory and Postmodernism. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
White, Stephen K. 2000. Sustaining Affirmation: The Strengths of Weak Ontology in Political Theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Xenophon. 1968. Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, Symposium and Apology, trans. Todd, O. J.. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Loeb.Google Scholar