Apuleius' Platonism: The Impersonation of Philosophy

Apuleius' Platonism: The Impersonation of Philosophy

by Richard Fletcher
Apuleius' Platonism: The Impersonation of Philosophy

Apuleius' Platonism: The Impersonation of Philosophy

by Richard Fletcher

Paperback

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Overview

Apuleius of Madauros, writing in the latter half of the second century CE in Roman North Africa, is best known to us today for his Latin fiction, the Metamorphoses aka The Golden Ass, about a man who turned into a donkey and back again. However, he was also a Platonic philosopher, who, even though many of his writings are lost, wrote a range of rhetorical and philosophical works which survive to this day. This book examines these works to reveal how Apuleius' Platonism is a result of his 'impersonation of philosophy', that is, a rhetorically powerful methodological tool that allows him to 'speak' on behalf of Plato and his philosophy. This book is the first exploration of the full scope of his idiosyncratic brand of Platonism across his multifarious literary corpus and is a major contribution to the study of the dynamic between literature and philosophy in antiquity and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781107659117
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication date: 03/23/2017
Series: Cambridge Classical Studies
Pages: 332
Product dimensions: 5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Richard Fletcher is Associate Professor in the Department of Classics at Ohio State University.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Becoming Plato, voicing Platonism; 3. Universal reading and daemonic interpretation; 4. Platonism on trial and philosophy on stage; 5. Conclusion (Metamorphoses).
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