Plato the Myth Maker - Hardcover

Brisson, Luc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226075184 ISBN 13: 9780226075181

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1999

Synopsis

One thinks of a myth as a fictional story, and Plato was the first to use the term "muthos" in that sense. But Plato also used "muthos" to describe the practice of making and telling myths, the oral transmission of all that a community keeps in its collective memory. In the first part of this text, Luc Brisson reconstructs Plato's multifaceted and not uncritical description of "muthos" in light of the latter's famous Atlantis story. The second part of the book contrasts this sense of myth, as Plato does, with another form of speech which he believed was far superior: the "logos" of philosophy. Brisson's work is part lexical, part philosophical, and part ethnological, and Gerard Naddaf's introduction shows the originality and importance both of Brisson's method and of Plato's analysis in the context of contemporary debates over the origin and evolution of the oral tradition.

About this title

About the Author

Luc Bisson is the directeur de recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and vice president of the International Plato Society. Gerard Naddaf is an associate professor of philosophy at York University.

From the Inside Flap

The word myth is commonly thought to mean a fictional story, but few know that Plato was the first to use the term muthos in that sense. He also used muthos to describe the practice of making and telling stories, the oral transmission of all that a community keeps in its collective memory. In the first part of Plato the Myth Maker, Luc Brisson reconstructs Plato's multifaceted description of muthos in light of the latter's Atlantis story. The second part of the book contrasts this sense of myth with another form of speech that Plato believed was far superior: the logos of philosophy.

Gerard Naddaf's substantial introduction shows the originality and imporatnce both of Brisson's method and of Plato's analysis and places them in the context of contemporary debates over the origin and evolution of the oral tradition.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0226075184
• ISBN 13: 9780226075181
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 188