R&L Logo R&L Logo
  • GENERAL
    • Browse by Subjects
    • New Releases
    • Coming Soon
    • Chases's Calendar
  • ACADEMIC
    • Textbooks
    • Browse by Course
    • Instructor's Copies
    • Monographs & Research
    • Reference
  • PROFESSIONAL
    • Education
    • Intelligence & Security
    • Library Services
    • Business & Leadership
    • Museum Studies
    • Music
    • Pastoral Resources
    • Psychotherapy
  • FREUD SET
Cover Image
Hardback
share of facebook share on twitter
Add to GoodReads

Xenophon's Socratic Rhetoric

Virtue, Eros, and Philosophy in the Symposium

Dustin A. Gish

In one of the most charming works to survive from classical antiquity, Xenophon’s Symposium depicts an amiable evening of wine, entertainment, and conversation shared by Socrates, and a few of his associates, with certain Athenian gentlemen who are gathered to honor a young man for his recent victory in the Panathenaic games. The subtle playfulness which characterizes the animated discussions conceals a light-hearted, yet surprisingly philosophical inquiry regarding the rival claims of virtue, articulated and defended by the Socratics and gentlemen to establish the praiseworthiness and excellence of their competing ways of life. Gentlemanliness, taken as an admired political virtue, and philosophy, as pursuit of wisdom and self-sufficiency, emerge as contested ideas about what constitutes the path to human happiness, especially in response to the beautiful and its compelling arousal of erotic desire in the body and soul.

Offering a comprehensive account and interpretation of the Symposium, this book follows the speeches and action of the dialogue through its many twists and turns, from beginning to end, with particular attention to the place of rhetoric in the argument of the work as a whole. Thus, Xenophon's Socratic Rhetoric examines foundational aspects of the philosophic life manifest in the words as well as deeds of Socrates in this dialogue--starting from an original reading of the opening scene as a harbinger of the competition in wisdom that occurs over the course of the symposium, and concluding with a provocative consideration of conjugal erotics as the continuation and completion of the Socratic logos about the role of love in guiding human beings toward virtue and happiness.

  • Details
  • Details
  • Author
  • Author
  • TOC
  • TOC
  • Reviews
  • Reviews
Lexington Books
Pages: 390 • Trim: 7¼ x 10½
978-1-66690-316-4 • Hardback • December 2022 • $163.00 • (£127.00)
Subjects: Philosophy / Political, Political Science / History & Theory, Philosophy / Criticism

Dustin A. Gish is Associate Professor in The Honors College at the University of Houston.

Introduction: Opening Reflections

Part I: Xenophon’s Symposium in Context

Chapter 1: Situating the Dialogue: Athenian Competitions

Chapter 2: Setting the Stage: Sophistry versus Philosophy

Chapter 3: The Banquet Begins: Rule and the Symposium

Chapter 4: Rival Ways of Life: Καλοκἀγαθία and Virtue

Part II: Sympotic Entertainments

Chapter 5: Display Speeches and the Promise of Wisdom

Chapter 6: Defense Speeches and the Socratic Way of Life

Chapter 7: Socratic Moderation in Pursuit of the Beautiful

Part III: Socratic Rhetoric in the Symposium

Chapter 8: Refutations, Accusations, and Education

Chapter 9: Digression, Reconciliation, and Restoration

Chapter 10 : Educating Gentlemen and Moderating Erōs

Chapter 11 : Performative Rhetoric and Conjugal Erotics

Conclusion: Xenophon’s Socrates and Political Philosophy

It has been exciting and enlightening to see Xenophon’s stature rise in the eyes of serious readers over the last several decades, and this new book-length study of a short but charming dialogue will surely help continue the trend. It carefully probes the dialogue and helps us see better the complexity of Xenophon’s presentation of Socrates and makes an important contribution even in its extensive bibliography and inclusion of diverging points of view.


— Wayne Ambler, University of Colorado Boulder


Dustin Gish has written a learned, detailed, and insightful running commentary on the most intriguing of Xenophon’s Socratic works, the Symposium. Gish writes in the influential scholarly tradition established by the late German-American political philosopher, Leo Strauss, but, unlike Strauss and many of his followers, Gish writes in a way that will be accessible and useful to scholars and students from any background. So in addition to producing the only monograph on Xenophon’s Symposium, and a fine one at that, he has made a vital contribution to making Straussian thought more accessible. His commentary on the Symposium will be essential reading for anyone interested in Socrates, Xenophon, sympotic literature, or classical political philosophy.


— David M. Johnson, Southern Illinois University


In Xenophon’s Socratic Rhetoric, Dustin Gish offers a meticulous reading of one of the more neglected Socratic dialogues, Xenophon’s Symposium, a work dedicated to recollecting the “deeds of noble and good men…in times of play.” Gish, with a keen eye and a playful pen, shows us that what is involved in such a recollection is no laughing matter. For the thrust of Socrates’ moderate and moderating teaching on eros here, which seeks to unite those desirous of becoming gentlemen with service to the welfare of their polis, constitutes a preemptive defense against the charges that Socrates proved a danger to Athens by corrupting its youth. And yet, as Gish shows us, Xenophon does not merely follow his teacher here. Instead, Xenophon's artful rhetoric points to the possible harmony between conjugal and philosophical eros, a kind of marital excellence that in its “mutual pursuit of desire and virtue” holds out the promise of bringing together the bodies and souls of lovers in a manner compatible with the pursuit of human excellence in its highest forms. To this intoxicating suggestion, let us raise a glass! But as Gish’s reading of the Symposium reminds us, let us do so in the peculiar spirit of sobriety embodied by Xenophon and his Socrates.


— Bernard J. Dobski, Assumption University


Xenophon’s Socratic Rhetoric: Virtue, Eros, and Philosophy is the first book-length study of Xenophon’s Symposium published in English to date. Through a detailed and thought-provoking commentary on each section, Gish offers a comprehensive, careful, and persuasive analysis of this work on its own merits. Without neglecting that “mixture of playfulness and seriousness” which Xenophon himself claims for his work, this book presents readers with an alternative to the Platonic portrait of Socrates through its finely reconstructed perspective on Socratic rhetoric, virtue, and the philosophic life.


— Francesca Pentassuglio, University of Cologne/"Sapienza" University of Rome


Xenophon's Socratic Rhetoric

Virtue, Eros, and Philosophy in the Symposium

Cover Image
Hardback
Summary
Summary
  • In one of the most charming works to survive from classical antiquity, Xenophon’s Symposium depicts an amiable evening of wine, entertainment, and conversation shared by Socrates, and a few of his associates, with certain Athenian gentlemen who are gathered to honor a young man for his recent victory in the Panathenaic games. The subtle playfulness which characterizes the animated discussions conceals a light-hearted, yet surprisingly philosophical inquiry regarding the rival claims of virtue, articulated and defended by the Socratics and gentlemen to establish the praiseworthiness and excellence of their competing ways of life. Gentlemanliness, taken as an admired political virtue, and philosophy, as pursuit of wisdom and self-sufficiency, emerge as contested ideas about what constitutes the path to human happiness, especially in response to the beautiful and its compelling arousal of erotic desire in the body and soul.

    Offering a comprehensive account and interpretation of the Symposium, this book follows the speeches and action of the dialogue through its many twists and turns, from beginning to end, with particular attention to the place of rhetoric in the argument of the work as a whole. Thus, Xenophon's Socratic Rhetoric examines foundational aspects of the philosophic life manifest in the words as well as deeds of Socrates in this dialogue--starting from an original reading of the opening scene as a harbinger of the competition in wisdom that occurs over the course of the symposium, and concluding with a provocative consideration of conjugal erotics as the continuation and completion of the Socratic logos about the role of love in guiding human beings toward virtue and happiness.

Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 390 • Trim: 7¼ x 10½
    978-1-66690-316-4 • Hardback • December 2022 • $163.00 • (£127.00)
    Subjects: Philosophy / Political, Political Science / History & Theory, Philosophy / Criticism
Author
Author
  • Dustin A. Gish is Associate Professor in The Honors College at the University of Houston.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Introduction: Opening Reflections

    Part I: Xenophon’s Symposium in Context

    Chapter 1: Situating the Dialogue: Athenian Competitions

    Chapter 2: Setting the Stage: Sophistry versus Philosophy

    Chapter 3: The Banquet Begins: Rule and the Symposium

    Chapter 4: Rival Ways of Life: Καλοκἀγαθία and Virtue

    Part II: Sympotic Entertainments

    Chapter 5: Display Speeches and the Promise of Wisdom

    Chapter 6: Defense Speeches and the Socratic Way of Life

    Chapter 7: Socratic Moderation in Pursuit of the Beautiful

    Part III: Socratic Rhetoric in the Symposium

    Chapter 8: Refutations, Accusations, and Education

    Chapter 9: Digression, Reconciliation, and Restoration

    Chapter 10 : Educating Gentlemen and Moderating Erōs

    Chapter 11 : Performative Rhetoric and Conjugal Erotics

    Conclusion: Xenophon’s Socrates and Political Philosophy

Reviews
Reviews
  • It has been exciting and enlightening to see Xenophon’s stature rise in the eyes of serious readers over the last several decades, and this new book-length study of a short but charming dialogue will surely help continue the trend. It carefully probes the dialogue and helps us see better the complexity of Xenophon’s presentation of Socrates and makes an important contribution even in its extensive bibliography and inclusion of diverging points of view.


    — Wayne Ambler, University of Colorado Boulder


    Dustin Gish has written a learned, detailed, and insightful running commentary on the most intriguing of Xenophon’s Socratic works, the Symposium. Gish writes in the influential scholarly tradition established by the late German-American political philosopher, Leo Strauss, but, unlike Strauss and many of his followers, Gish writes in a way that will be accessible and useful to scholars and students from any background. So in addition to producing the only monograph on Xenophon’s Symposium, and a fine one at that, he has made a vital contribution to making Straussian thought more accessible. His commentary on the Symposium will be essential reading for anyone interested in Socrates, Xenophon, sympotic literature, or classical political philosophy.


    — David M. Johnson, Southern Illinois University


    In Xenophon’s Socratic Rhetoric, Dustin Gish offers a meticulous reading of one of the more neglected Socratic dialogues, Xenophon’s Symposium, a work dedicated to recollecting the “deeds of noble and good men…in times of play.” Gish, with a keen eye and a playful pen, shows us that what is involved in such a recollection is no laughing matter. For the thrust of Socrates’ moderate and moderating teaching on eros here, which seeks to unite those desirous of becoming gentlemen with service to the welfare of their polis, constitutes a preemptive defense against the charges that Socrates proved a danger to Athens by corrupting its youth. And yet, as Gish shows us, Xenophon does not merely follow his teacher here. Instead, Xenophon's artful rhetoric points to the possible harmony between conjugal and philosophical eros, a kind of marital excellence that in its “mutual pursuit of desire and virtue” holds out the promise of bringing together the bodies and souls of lovers in a manner compatible with the pursuit of human excellence in its highest forms. To this intoxicating suggestion, let us raise a glass! But as Gish’s reading of the Symposium reminds us, let us do so in the peculiar spirit of sobriety embodied by Xenophon and his Socrates.


    — Bernard J. Dobski, Assumption University


    Xenophon’s Socratic Rhetoric: Virtue, Eros, and Philosophy is the first book-length study of Xenophon’s Symposium published in English to date. Through a detailed and thought-provoking commentary on each section, Gish offers a comprehensive, careful, and persuasive analysis of this work on its own merits. Without neglecting that “mixture of playfulness and seriousness” which Xenophon himself claims for his work, this book presents readers with an alternative to the Platonic portrait of Socrates through its finely reconstructed perspective on Socratic rhetoric, virtue, and the philosophic life.


    — Francesca Pentassuglio, University of Cologne/"Sapienza" University of Rome


ALSO AVAILABLE

  • Cover image for the book Creolizing Hannah Arendt
  • Cover image for the book Decolonial Pluriversalism
  • Cover image for the book Decolonial Feminism in Abya Yala: Caribbean, Meso, and South American Contributions and Challenges
  • Cover image for the book Sartre, Imagination and Dialectical Reason: Creating Society as a Work of Art
  • Cover image for the book The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt and 'The Final Solution'
  • Cover image for the book The Post-Truth Condition: Philosophical Reflections
  • Cover image for the book A Materialist Theory of Justice: The One, the Many, the Not-Yet
  • Cover image for the book The Democracy Reader: From Classical to Contemporary Philosophy
  • Cover image for the book Resistance and Decolonization
  • Cover image for the book Civil Disobedience: A Philosophical Overview
  • Cover image for the book Carl Schmitt: State and Society
  • Cover image for the book An Appeal to the World: Creolizing Domination in the Political Thought of Montesquieu, Fukuzawa, and Du Bois
  • Cover image for the book Refugees Now: Rethinking Borders, Hospitality, and Citizenship
  • Cover image for the book Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race in America, Second Edition
  • Cover image for the book Liberal Education and Democratic Citizenship
  • Cover image for the book After Capitalism, 2nd Edition
  • Cover image for the book Complicity and the Politics of Representation
  • Cover image for the book Rorty, Public Reason, and Modernity's Crisis of Critique
  • Cover image for the book A New Philosophy of Human Rights: The Deliberative Account
  • Cover image for the book Democratic Decisions in a Critical Thinking Crisis
  • Cover image for the book The End of Law: Carl Schmitt in the Twenty-First Century, Second Edition
  • Cover image for the book Decolonizing Feminism: Transnational Feminism and Globalization
  • Cover image for the book Pluralism, Property, and Radical Transformation
  • Cover image for the book Simone Weil’s Political Philosophy: Field Notes from the Margins
  • Cover image for the book American Philosophy in Translation
  • Cover image for the book Axel Honneth: Reconceiving Social Philosophy
  • Cover image for the book The Politicization of Trans Identity: An Analysis of Backlash, Scapegoating, and Dog-Whistling from Obergefell to Bostock
  • Cover image for the book Alexandre Kojeve: Wisdom at the End of History
  • Cover image for the book The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking
  • Cover image for the book Africa beyond Liberal Democracy: In Search of Context-Relevant Models of Democracy for the Twenty-First Century
  • Cover image for the book From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism
  • Cover image for the book The Politics of Virtue: Post-Liberalism and the Human Future
  • Cover image for the book Frantz Fanon, Psychiatry and Politics
  • Cover image for the book Outline of a Phenomenology of Right
  • Cover image for the book A Just Society
  • Cover image for the book The Troubles with Democracy
  • Cover image for the book A Critique of Sovereignty
  • Cover image for the book Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine: Universities, Intellectualism and Liberation
  • Cover image for the book The Public Perspective: Public Justification and the Ethics of Belief
  • Cover image for the book On the Socratic Education: An Introduction to the Shorter Platonic Dialogues
  • Cover image for the book The Emergence of China's Smart State
  • Cover image for the book Kidnapped Democracy
  • Cover image for the book Postmodernism Rightly Understood: The Return to Realism in American Thought
  • Cover image for the book Creolizing Hannah Arendt
  • Cover image for the book Decolonial Pluriversalism
  • Cover image for the book Decolonial Feminism in Abya Yala: Caribbean, Meso, and South American Contributions and Challenges
  • Cover image for the book Sartre, Imagination and Dialectical Reason: Creating Society as a Work of Art
  • Cover image for the book The Banality of Evil: Hannah Arendt and 'The Final Solution'
  • Cover image for the book The Post-Truth Condition: Philosophical Reflections
  • Cover image for the book A Materialist Theory of Justice: The One, the Many, the Not-Yet
  • Cover image for the book The Democracy Reader: From Classical to Contemporary Philosophy
  • Cover image for the book Resistance and Decolonization
  • Cover image for the book Civil Disobedience: A Philosophical Overview
  • Cover image for the book Carl Schmitt: State and Society
  • Cover image for the book An Appeal to the World: Creolizing Domination in the Political Thought of Montesquieu, Fukuzawa, and Du Bois
  • Cover image for the book Refugees Now: Rethinking Borders, Hospitality, and Citizenship
  • Cover image for the book Black Bodies, White Gazes: The Continuing Significance of Race in America, Second Edition
  • Cover image for the book Liberal Education and Democratic Citizenship
  • Cover image for the book After Capitalism, 2nd Edition
  • Cover image for the book Complicity and the Politics of Representation
  • Cover image for the book Rorty, Public Reason, and Modernity's Crisis of Critique
  • Cover image for the book A New Philosophy of Human Rights: The Deliberative Account
  • Cover image for the book Democratic Decisions in a Critical Thinking Crisis
  • Cover image for the book The End of Law: Carl Schmitt in the Twenty-First Century, Second Edition
  • Cover image for the book Decolonizing Feminism: Transnational Feminism and Globalization
  • Cover image for the book Pluralism, Property, and Radical Transformation
  • Cover image for the book Simone Weil’s Political Philosophy: Field Notes from the Margins
  • Cover image for the book American Philosophy in Translation
  • Cover image for the book Axel Honneth: Reconceiving Social Philosophy
  • Cover image for the book The Politicization of Trans Identity: An Analysis of Backlash, Scapegoating, and Dog-Whistling from Obergefell to Bostock
  • Cover image for the book Alexandre Kojeve: Wisdom at the End of History
  • Cover image for the book The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking
  • Cover image for the book Africa beyond Liberal Democracy: In Search of Context-Relevant Models of Democracy for the Twenty-First Century
  • Cover image for the book From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism
  • Cover image for the book The Politics of Virtue: Post-Liberalism and the Human Future
  • Cover image for the book Frantz Fanon, Psychiatry and Politics
  • Cover image for the book Outline of a Phenomenology of Right
  • Cover image for the book A Just Society
  • Cover image for the book The Troubles with Democracy
  • Cover image for the book A Critique of Sovereignty
  • Cover image for the book Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine: Universities, Intellectualism and Liberation
  • Cover image for the book The Public Perspective: Public Justification and the Ethics of Belief
  • Cover image for the book On the Socratic Education: An Introduction to the Shorter Platonic Dialogues
  • Cover image for the book The Emergence of China's Smart State
  • Cover image for the book Kidnapped Democracy
  • Cover image for the book Postmodernism Rightly Understood: The Return to Realism in American Thought
facebook icon twitter icon instagram icon linked in icon NEWSLETTERS
ABOUT US
  • Mission Statement
  • Employment
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility Statement
CONTACT
  • Company Directory
  • Publicity and Media Queries
  • Rights and Permissions
  • Textbook Resource Center
AUTHOR RESOURCES
  • Royalty Contact
  • Production Guidelines
  • Manuscript Submissions
ORDERING INFORMATION
  • Rowman & Littlefield
  • National Book Network
  • Ingram Publisher Services UK
  • Special Sales
  • International Sales
  • eBook Partners
  • Digital Catalogs
IMPRINTS
  • Rowman & Littlefield
  • Lexington Books
  • Hamilton Books
  • Applause Books
  • Amadeus Press
  • Backbeat Books
  • Bernan
  • Hal Leonard Books
  • Limelight Editions
  • Co-Publishing Partners
  • Globe Pequot
  • Down East Books
  • Falcon Guides
  • Gooseberry Patch
  • Lyons Press
  • Muddy Boots
  • Pineapple Press
  • TwoDot Books
  • Stackpole Books
PARTNERS
  • American Alliance of Museums
  • American Association for State and Local History
  • Brookings Institution Press
  • Center for Strategic & International Studies
  • Council on Foreign Relations
  • Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
  • Fortress Press
  • The Foundation for Critical Thinking
  • Lehigh University Press
  • United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
  • Other Partners...