The musical structure of Plato's dialogues /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Kennedy, J. B. (John Bernard), 1958-
Imprint:Durham : Acumen Publishing, 2011.
Description:xviii, 318 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Language:English
Subject:Plato -- Criticism and interpretation.
Plato.
Dialogi.
Rhetoric.
Allegorie.
Formfaktor.
Musik.
Rhetoric.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Format: Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/8460857
Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:9781844652662 (hbk.)
1844652661 (hbk.)
9781844652679 (pbk.)
184465267X (pbk.)
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-314) and index.
Summary:"J. B. Kennedy presents a radical interpretation of the dialogues of Plato. In a detailed and systematic examination of the Symposium and Euthyphro, Kennedy reveals an underlying musical structure to Plato's dialogues, one that uses symbols to encode Pythagorean doctrines. The followers of Pythagoras famously thought that the cosmos had a hidden musical structure and that wise philosophers would be able to hear this "harmony of the spheres". Kennedy, an expert in Pythagorean mathematics and music theory, shows that Plato - thought by many of his contemporaries and followers to have been influenced by the Pythagoreans - built a similar, musical structure into his dialogues. Kennedy's careful stichometric analysis reveals that each dialogue can be divided into twelve parts, each symbolically representing the notes in a twelve-note musical scale. These passages are shown to be relatively harmonious or dissonant. Plato used, Kennedy shows, the underlying musical scale as an outline for his dialogues, with arguments and episodes populating the intervals between notes, and major concepts or turns in the argument located at notes. Kennedy's findings are shown to chime with many of Plato's ancient followers who insisted that Plato used symbols to conceal his own views within the dialogues. That modern commentators have denied this, Kennedy argues, is a legacy of the Reformation's turn towards literalism and its rejection of theological allegory. The Musical Structure of Plato's Dialogues argues for the rehabilitation of the allegorical Plato. It is a bold and ambitious book and one that will prompt much debate." --Publisher's website.
Description
Summary:J. B. Kennedy argues that Plato's dialogues have an unsuspected musical structure and use symbols to encode Pythagorean doctrines. The followers of Pythagoras famously thought that the cosmos had a hidden musical structure and that wise philosophers would be able to hear this harmony of the spheres. Kennedy shows that Plato gave his dialogues a similar, hidden musical structure. He divided each dialogue into twelve parts and inserted symbols at each twelfth to mark a musical note. These passages are relatively harmonious or dissonant, and so traverse the ups and downs of a known musical scale. Many of Plato's ancient followers insisted that Plato used symbols to conceal his own views within the dialogues, but modern scholars have denied this. Kennedy, an expert in Pythagorean mathematics and music theory, now shows that Plato's dialogues do contain a system of symbols. Scholars in the humanities, without knowledge of obsolete Greek mathematics, would not have been able to detect these musical patterns. This book begins with a concise and accessible introduction to Plato's symbolic schemes and the role of allegory in ancient times. The following chapters then annotate the musical symbols in two of Plato's most popular dialogues, the Symposium and Euthyphro, and show that Plato used the musical scale as an outline for structuring his narratives.
Physical Description:xviii, 318 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-314) and index.
ISBN:9781844652662 (hbk.)
1844652661 (hbk.)
9781844652679 (pbk.)
184465267X (pbk.)