Plato's "Letters" as Political Philosophy: A New Interpretation and English Translation

FAIN: FEL-257881-18

Ariel Helfer
Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI 48824-3407)

A new translation and interpretation of Plato's Letters.

Plato’s Letters portrays Plato’s political entanglements through a series of thirteen letters to tyrants, friends, and other acquaintances. Modern scholars, forgetting or dismissing the judgment of ancient readers who both vouched for its Platonic authorship and extolled its philosophic merit, treat the Letters as a useful but motley collection of fragments and forgeries. I maintain that the Letters is a coherent, unitary text, conveying the author’s profound reflections on the perilous position of the philosopher who wishes to defend the justice of philosophy and providing a crucial supplement to the high-flown rhetoric of the Republic. My book, besides providing a new English translation for students who wish to recover the Letters for philosophic study, will include a commentary on the text in which I explore Plato’s understanding of the relationship between the philosophic and political lives, restoring a crucial piece of the Platonic corpus to its proper place.

Associated Products

Plato's Letters: The Political Challenges of the Philosophic Life (Book)
Title: Plato's Letters: The Political Challenges of the Philosophic Life
Author: Ariel Helfer
Abstract: A new English translation of Plato's Letters with notes on historical context and linguistic subtleties, preceded by an introduction arguing that the Letters is an authentic, unified piece of Platonic philosophic literature, and followed by a three-part interpretive essay.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501772900/platos-letters/#bookTabs=1
Primary URL Description: Publisher's webpage
Secondary URL: https://www.amazon.com/Platos-Letters-Political-Challenges-Philosophic/dp/1501772899/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=7wRZk&content-id=amzn1.sym.cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_p=cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_r=131-0101091-0217104&pd_rd_wg=
Secondary URL Description: Amazon webpage
Access Model: Print and digital book
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Type: Single author monograph
Type: Translation
ISBN: 9781501772894
Translator: Ariel Helfer
Copy sent to NEH?: No

The Apology of Plato: Approaching the Platonic Letters as an Epistolary Novel (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Apology of Plato: Approaching the Platonic Letters as an Epistolary Novel
Author: Ariel Helfer
Abstract: This essay proposes an interpretation of Plato's Letters as a unitary work of Platonic political philosophy aimed at the defense of Plato's own political activity
Date: 9/2/2016
Conference Name: 2016 American Political Science Association Conference

Plato’s Introduction to the Letters: Letters One and Two as the Overture to an Epistolary Novel (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Plato’s Introduction to the Letters: Letters One and Two as the Overture to an Epistolary Novel
Author: Ariel Helfer
Abstract: An interpretation of Plato's Letters One and Two, in light of the thesis that the Letters is a unitary work of Platonic political philosophy
Date: 4/7/2017
Conference Name: 2017 Midwest Political Science Association Conference

Philosophy in Plato’s Letters: On the (Mis)Application of Platonic Philosophy (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Philosophy in Plato’s Letters: On the (Mis)Application of Platonic Philosophy
Author: Ariel Helfer
Abstract: A preliminary study of the theme of philosophy throughout Plato's Letters.
Date: 4/21/2017
Conference Name: 2017 New England Political Science Association Conference

On the Character and Intention of Plato’s Letters: Notes on Letters I, II, III, and XIII from Plato to Dionysius (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: On the Character and Intention of Plato’s Letters: Notes on Letters I, II, III, and XIII from Plato to Dionysius
Author: Ariel Helfer
Abstract: An interpretation of the Platonic letters addressed to the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius, taken as they key to a broader interpretation of the whole Letters as a Platonic epistolary novel.
Date: 9/1/2017
Conference Name: 2017 American Political Science Association Conference

Reading Plato’s Letters: Toward an Interpretation of the Letters as a Work of Platonic Philosophy (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Reading Plato’s Letters: Toward an Interpretation of the Letters as a Work of Platonic Philosophy
Author: Ariel Helfer
Abstract: Arguing for the coherence of Plato's Letters as a kind of philosophic epistolary novel
Date: 4/8/2018
Conference Name: 2018 Midwest Political Science Association Conference

The Enigmas in Plato’s Second Letter (312d2-313c7) (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: The Enigmas in Plato’s Second Letter (312d2-313c7)
Author: Ariel Helfer
Abstract: An interpretation of Plato's explicitly "enigmatic" philosophic education of the Syracusan tyrant Dionysius in Letter Two
Date: 9/1/2018
Conference Name: 2018 American Political Science Association Conference

Toward an Interpretation of Plato’s Letter Three (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Toward an Interpretation of Plato’s Letter Three
Author: Ariel Helfer
Abstract: A preliminary interpretation of Plato's Letter Three, viewed in the context of the whole Letters as a coherent work of Platonic political philosophy
Date: 11/9/2018
Conference Name: 2018 Northeastern Political Science Association Conference

Letter Seven as Fictional Autobiography (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Letter Seven as Fictional Autobiography
Author: Ariel Helfer
Abstract: An interpretation of Plato's long and complex Letter Seven, viewed in light of the hypothesis that Letter Seven is the central key to the correct understanding of the whole Letters as a philosophic epistolary novel
Date: 4/6/2019
Conference Name: 2019 Midwest Political Science Association Conference

How to Read Plato's Letters (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: How to Read Plato's Letters
Author: Ariel Helfer
Abstract: An argument for the "literary unity thesis" regarding Plato's Letters, according to which the Letters must be viewed as a semi-fictional philosophic autobiography, written by Plato in the form of an epistolary novel
Date: 5/22/2022
Conference Name: Wayne State Interdisciplinary Plato Conference

Philosophy in Plato's Letter Six (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Philosophy in Plato's Letter Six
Author: Ariel Helfer
Abstract: An interpretation of the theme of philosophy in Plato's Letters, focusing on Letter Six as the key to Plato's two-sided presentation of that theme throughout
Date: 4/8/2022
Conference Name: 2022 Midwest Political Science Association Conference

On the Literary Character of Plato’s Letters (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: On the Literary Character of Plato’s Letters
Abstract: A presentation and defense of the hypothesis that Plato's Letters is a semi-fictional, semi-autobiographical epistolary novel, intended to occupy an important place in the Platonic corpus as a work of political philosophy
Author: Ariel Helfer
Date: 3/25/2017
Location: Michigan State University, Department of Philosophy "History of Philosophy Circle" lecture series

Plato’s Letters: The Political Dangers of the Philosophic Life (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Plato’s Letters: The Political Dangers of the Philosophic Life
Abstract: A presentation of Plato's Letters as an authentic piece of Platonic philosophic literature, interpreted as a portrayal of the dangerous political activities in which Plato insinuated himself for the sake of defending his philosophic career
Author: Ariel Helfer
Date: 4/4/2018
Location: Wayne State University, Political Science Department "Colloquium Series"

Plato’s Letters as Epistolary Novel: A New Perspective on the Meaning of Platonic Political Philosophy (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Plato’s Letters as Epistolary Novel: A New Perspective on the Meaning of Platonic Political Philosophy
Abstract: A lecture on the unified literary character of Plato's Letters, in which the Letters is interpreted as providing valuable new insight into the meaning of Platonic political philosophy
Author: Ariel Helfer
Date: 4/26/2021
Location: Zoom lecture for the University of West Florida's Reubin O'D. Askew Department of Government

The Presentation of Philosophy in Plato’s Letters (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: The Presentation of Philosophy in Plato’s Letters
Abstract: An analysis of the theme of philosophy in Plato's Letters, interpreted as a unified work of Platonic political philosophy
Author: Ariel Helfer
Date: 12/9/2021
Location: Michigan State University, Lefrak Forum on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy
Primary URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBbSe_oKlCw&ab_channel=TheLeFrakForumatMichiganStateUniversity
Primary URL Description: Youtube link to recording of the lecture

Wayne State University Research Grant (Staff/Faculty/Fellow Position)
Name: Wayne State University Research Grant
Abstract: Grant to support summer research
Year: 2018

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