Plato's conversations of Socrates are among the most accessible philosophical texts most of us have ever read, yet the more one pursues the art or intelligibility of this writing, the more mysterious and paradoxical the Platonic texts become. What does it mean to study Plato, not philosophically as a maker of arguments, not poetically as a maker of dialogues, but literally as a maker of texts? This is a question that Jacques Derrida has made his own, and in this book Farness creates a dialogue with Derrida on Plato's texts.Missing Socrates also provides a dialogue between Plato and Socrates on the question of speech versus writing and a study of the materiality of Plato's writing. Included among the various dialogues and themes developed here are rhetoric and courtroom practice in the Apology of Socrates; religion, skepticism, and the idea of transcendence in the Euthyphro; artistic practice and tradition in the Ion; education and political discipline in the Charmides; and rhetoric, writing, commemoration, and the motives of authorship in Phaedrus. In each of these discursive settings, Socrates unsuccessfully seeks a place or a mode for philosophy; Farness shows that the dialogues of Plato uncannily supply that lack.

Missing Socrates: Problems of Plato's Writing

Literature & Fiction

Farness, Jay

Dramas & Plays

Penn State University Press

College Writing Skills uses explanation, demonstration, and practice to teach skills essential to success in college writing. For this course Peder Jones and Jay Farness have constructed a framework of rhetoric―work in composing paragraphs and essays―around disciplined study of sentences and words. The authors have sought in each section of the book to combine the most useful features of contemporary and traditional approaches to college English. Their overall aim is to enable the beginning college writer to compose clear and effective sentences, paragraphs, and compositions. This new edition of College Writing Skills is a refinement of the four previous editions; it has been shaped by helpful comments from students and instructors who have used the course. Exercises have been updated, and many minor changes for clarity have been made. Basic features of this text have not changed, however. As a hybrid of textbook and workbook, it continues to stress focused practice leading to directed independent composing activities; it emphasizes student writing rather than students reading about writing. This emphasis translates into more than 500 sets of exercises, more than 100 optional workshop activities, and an Appendix covering special problems in the acquisition of English. The exercises in this textbook embody our belief that practice is crucial to improving one's writing skills. Accordingly, this text provides practice in forming ideas, in getting ideas our one's head and onto paper, in experimenting with various sentence structures in order to achieve clarity, in following models of correct grammar and effective style, and in making the writing process pay off through effective revision and editing. A Collegiate Press book

College Writing Skills

Reference

Jones, Peder

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

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