Bobo Zhang, "Unraveling the Mystery of Thrasymachus' Blush in 'The Republic'" (EPAM Workshop)

Date
Thu January 9th 2020, 4:15 - 6:00pm
Event Sponsor
Department of Philosophy, Department of Classics
Location
TBA
Bobo Zhang, "Unraveling the Mystery of Thrasymachus' Blush in 'The Republic'" (EPAM Workshop)

With comments by Avshalom Schwartz. Light refreshments will be served.

"At Republic 347d, Socrates turns from the claim that justice is the advantage of the stronger to the contention that the life of the unjust man is superior to that of the just man which he regards as more important. I shall not summarize the first part of his argument against this contention, but it produces in Thrasymachus the strongest conflict reaction yet. Why does Thrasymachus blush? Plato does not tell us this explicitly, and there has been a lot of debate about it among scholars. I attempt to provide a further example of Thrasymachus’ blush in Book I as a kind of humiliation, namely, losing face or feeling ashamed. The connection that I shall seek to establish is between the character of Thrasymachus and the thumos (or ‘spirited’ part) of the soul."

Professor Zhang's specializations are Greek ethics, political science, psychology and related issues in ancient Greek history, especially Plato and Aristotle. He is a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Classics for the 2019-20 academic year to work on his current research project, "Socrates in Plato's dialogues and Democracy".

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