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The Socratic Turn: Knowledge of Good and Evil in an Age of Science (Haney Foundation Series) by [Dustin Sebell]

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Dustin Sebell

The Socratic Turn: Knowledge of Good and Evil in an Age of Science (Haney Foundation Series) Kindle Edition

by Dustin Sebell (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

7 ratings

Part of: Haney Foundation Series (65 books)

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The Socratic Turn addresses the question of whether we can acquire genuine knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong. Reputedly, Socrates was the first philosopher to make the attempt. But Socrates was a materialistic natural scientist in his youth, and it was only much later in life—after he had rejected materialistic natural science—that he finally turned, around the age of forty, to the examination of ordinary moral and political opinions, or to moral-political philosophy so understood.

Through a consideration of Plato's account of Socrates' intellectual development, and with a view to relevant works of the pre-Socratics, Xenophon, Aristotle, Hesiod, Homer, and Aristophanes, Dustin Sebell reproduces the course of thought that carried Socrates from materialistic natural science to moral-political philosophy. By doing so, he seeks to recover an all but forgotten approach to the question of justice, one still worthy of being called scientific.

Print length

216 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University of Pennsylvania Press
Publication date

December 17, 2015
File size

2048 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A book as clear as it is profound." -Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., Harvard University

"A remarkable and penetrating study of what has come to be known as the Socratic turn, namely, Socrates's having turned away from his youthful quest for a (materialistic) science of nature in favor of the kind of inquiry that he is known for, an examination through dialogue of such humanly significant matters as justice and the good." -Review of Politics

"Dustin Sebell's The Socratic Turn is one of the best books on Plato written in the last quarter century. At its core, it is a brilliant and meticulous analysis of the 'intellectual autobiography' of Socrates...His account, written with extraordinary clarity and penetration, brings to life the difficulties and dilemmas that led Socrates eventually to abandon natural science and turn to the study of ethics and politics. His book will be of enduring interest to political theorists and political scientists--for whom it is essential--but it is also a must-read for modern natural scientists, who will be confronted with a bold and far-reaching challenge to the very possibility of the science they seek...An extraordinary achievement." -Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy

"A detailed and rich interpretation...Attractive for specialists in ancient philosophy as well as for political scientists struggling to come to terms with the predicament of the modern materialistic worldview...Sebell suggests a valuable reconsideration of political science." -Political Studies Review

"An outstanding work of scholarship." -Contemporary Political Theory --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

About the Author

Dustin Sebell is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B017AXG95O
Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Pennsylvania Press (December 17, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 17, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2048 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 216 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0812247809
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #2,492,394 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,306 in Epistemology (Kindle Store)
- #1,542 in Greek & Roman Philosophy (Kindle Store)
- #4,165 in Political Philosophy (Kindle Store)

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Michael McGettigan

Essential Introduction to Greek Thought

Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is the book I recommend to everyone who asks what they should read to understand Greek philosophy.

Sebell situates political thought in the context of knowing what is good, and then situates knowing what is good in the context of knowing anything at all as something specific. For Sebell as for Plato and Aristotle, knowing is determinate knowing, so indefinite, vague "heaps of predicates" do not count as knowledge as they sadly do for many of us.
He thereby illuminates the inner, necessary relation between knowledge, politics and the kind of knowledge that philosophy is. Sebell investigates Socrates' "philosophical autobiography" in terms of the fundamental elements of nature, Plato's "one and many" and the corresponding development of Platonic thought about one and many in Aristotle's Metaphysics and Physics.
Sebell is the first to make clear sense to me of Socrates' relentless inquiry into how it is that two is twice one, but one is twice a half. Who would have thought such worries could contain so much philosophical significance? I'm grateful to Sebell for making this clear to me.

Sebell shows what is essential to understand about Greek thought: you cannot separate these issues into separate disciplines, since they all are reflected into each other.

This is a great book and should enjoy wide readership. Make it a book club choice! It is beautifully written and never bogs down in technical detail.

Helpful

Loren Rotner

Sebell is one of the most promising young scholars of Plato working today

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2017

Sebell's The Socratic Turn provides a brilliant account of Plato's Phaedo, the dialogue that lays bare the foundations and motivations for Socrates' turn from the study of natural science to the human "moral-political" things. In clear, accessible, and careful prose, this book shows why Socratic philosophy is superior to modern natural science and to modern social science. Defenders of modern natural science and those attuned to the crisis of contemporary moral and liberal political theory would be well served by a confrontation with this book. It provides a road map to many of the most troubling foundational questions of modernity.

12 people found this helpful