Chapter 2 examines three problems in Heidegger’s interpretations of Plato: the impasse of dialogue and dialectic, Heidegger’s disastrous and putatively Platonic politics, and the reductive approach to Plato’s metaphysics. First, I question his critique of Platonic dialectic by showing that it is already built into the matter as well as the way of writing in Plato’s texts. Second, I show that Heidegger’s ontologizing of political themes in Plato’s writings leads him to a catastrophic “ontological politics” wherein ethics and politics in their concrete sense are completely eclipsed by or absorbed into ontology. Third, I show that the interpretations that Heidegger offers to show that Plato allegedly occluded the original sense of truth and distorted the question of Being. A closer look at the relevant passages as well as other passages that Heidegger overlooked reveals a much more dynamic ontology than what Heidegger sees in Platonism understood as metaphysics. The concluding remarks of the chapter sketch the post-Heideggerian directions leading from these three problems to the Platonism of Gadamer, Strauss, and Krüger.

Chapter 4 deals with the philosophical meaning of dialogue as a form of writing and thinking. I take as my starting point the apparent paradox of Plato’s written critique of writing in the Phaedrus and explain how Gadamer, Strauss, and Krüger resolve this question. For all three of them (inspired by Friedländer on this point), dialogical writing overcomes the deficiencies inherent to writing. I argue that for all three of them, dialogical writing and dialogical thinking reflect the practical embeddedness of philosophical inquiry: for Strauss, it is the political situatedness of the philosopher that has priority; for Gadamer, it is our ethical facticity; for Krüger, it is the fundamental attunements (Stimmungen) of philosophy. The chapter also explains how these three trajectories propose three different interpretations of the meaning of Socratic and Platonic irony, which is a key feature of Plato’s dialogical compositions.

Chapter 3 is a short interlude. It deals with the novelty of Paul Friedländer’s philological approach to Plato’s dialogues and shows how his insights were decisive in the subsequent philosophical attempts to move beyond Heidegger’s attack against Platonism. Friedländer’s originality consists of a brilliant attempt to bridge the philosophical and literary dimensions of Plato’s writings and thus to propose an interpretation of the philosophical meaning of the dialogical form of philosophy. I show that the three key features found by Friedländer – anti-dogmatism, irony, and ineffability – all have a significant role to play in post-Heideggerian Platonism, but that these had to be further developed philosophically by Gadamer, Strauss, and Krüger.

Abstract: In this chapter, English examines Human Nature and Conduct (1922) through the lens of Dewey’s broader theory of how humans learn. The chapter shows how Dewey’s emphasis on the productive role of uncertainty in human learning processes relates to how he differentiates between a habit as “a vital art” and a habit as “a mechanical routine.” The chapter then examines how Dewey expands his critique of traditional education by showing how traditional schooling separates habits from thought, creating mechanistic habits that do not allow for young people to learn the habit of learning – the habit to grow through encounters with difference. Using an example of classroom dialogue, English discusses how classrooms can become educational environments that foster the types of habits associated with educative growth. The chapter concludes by emphasizing that Human Nature and Conduct offers insight into not only the education of young people but also the education of grown-ups. Accordingly, adult society must construct environments for themselves that nurture thought and thereby help them develop rich perceptions of interdependencies between humans. Ultimately, the chapter provides an understanding of why making learning a habit is essential for the growth of an equitable, democratic future of education and society.

This chapter focuses on the ways in which maskilic (Jewish enlightenment) authors reshaped elements of the Hebrew language in order to make it suitable for use as a vehicle of modern European-style literature. Maskilic authors were motivated by the principle that the creation of a Hebrew literary canon based on European-language models was an essential component of the Jews’ Enlightenment. They developed a wide range of new written genres which had not previously existed in Hebrew, including original and translated novels, short stories, novellas, anecdotes, feuilletons, and plays; a flourishing press; popular science (e.g., astronomy, physics, biology, chemistry, zoology), politics, geography, and history; and fiction and nonfiction works for young readers. This large-scale endeavor resulted in the emergence of numerous linguistic innovations. In this chapter we examine several key yet understudied innovative features of maskilic Hebrew: 1) realistic colloquial dialogue, including a) new punctuation norms, b) use of interjections, and c) forms of address; 2) discussions of contemporary scientific and political topics using newly developed Hebrew vocabulary and European loanwords; and 3) prose syntax based on German and Russian stylistic models. These new components of Hebrew paved the way for the later vernacularization of the language in Ottoman Palestine.

How we transform our memories and experiences into fiction beyond the injunction to ‘write what you know’. The imaginative process includes filling in the gaps of memory, embracing the freedom to invent, selecting a viewpoint and adding energy through dialogue. We need to consider not only which details and descriptions to include but which to omit: the balancing of information affects the meaning and impact of the story.

How we use dialogue to develop character and advance plot. Overcoming anxiety about dialogue; the dangers of avoiding dialogue. Reported speech lacks energy; dialogue enlivens a scene. Dialogue reveals character, indicates relationship and conveys information, but has to appear authentic. Strong dialogue combines multiple functions. Punctuating and attributing dialogue; adverbs qualifying tone.

How to interrogate and improve your writing. Correcting errors; removing redundant phrases; trimming or augmenting attribution in speech; integrating action and speech; checking dialogue for authenticity; monitoring sentence length; balancing the extent of detail and description; scrutinising the chronology of description; checking narrative viewpoint is secure.

Thomas Pott takes as a point of departure the gospel’s unmistakable call for the unity of the Body of Christ. This leads him to reflect on several issues over which there is division in the Church. However, none of these issues is capable of endangering the fact that the liturgy bears, manifests, and transmits ecclesial unity uniquely and fundamentally.

An introduction to the historical and philosophical context of Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations and an overview of some general questions to be investigated in the volume, particularly: the question of Cicero’s ‘Socratic method’, his use of dialogue, his claim to argue on both sides of a question, and the relationship between this and his Academic scepticism.

This chapter explores how the ancient literary and philosophical dialogue form maintained its relevance as a tool of cultural and religious identity formation and competition. It addresses the ongoing scholarly discussion regarding the scope for dialogue in the face of rising authoritarianism and dogmatism in late antiquity.