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SPECTACLES OF TRUTH IN CLASSICAL GREEK PHILOSOPHY: THEORIA IN ITS CULTURAL CONTEXT. BY ANDREA WILSON NIGHTINGALE. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. 311.
THE OVERT PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK seems to be to examine conceptions of philosophical theoria in the light of "traditional" theoria-viz. the practice of taking a journey to view some spectacle before returning to one's native city. One form of such theoria was to be sent by one's own city to attend a religious festival and then report back on one's return, though someone might also embark on such theoria as a private individual. Nightingale argues that Plato, Philip of Opus (assuming him to be the author of the Epinomis), and Aristode all modelled philosophical on traditional theoria.
Accordingly, she devotes a chapter to traditional theoria in its various forms before examining philosophical theoria in a number of Platonic and Aristotelian texts. Two chapters discuss philosophical theoria in the Symposium, Phaedrus, and Republic (with particular emphasis on Books 5-7). The fourth chapter pieces together a selection of passages from the Phaedo (the final myth), Phaedrus, Timaeus, and Epinomis, and draws attention to a type of theoria that is not metaphysical, i.e., not directed at the Forms, but focused on perfect sensible bodies. The final chapter examines Aristode's account of theoria in the Protrepticus, Nicomachean Ethics, Metaphysics, and Politia, and makes a number of comparisons with Platonic theoria.
This lucid and engaging book contains much illuminating analysis of Platonic and Aristotelian theoria. It is a delight to...