While the Menexenus has received scholarly attention, it nevertheless remains deeply understudied. This is especially so given the rich and provocative nature of the text. At once ironic and interventionist, the Menexenus teasingly intersects with a broad range of Platonic concerns and other dialogues, making it an ideal topic for the 2014 Penn Ancient Workshop.

 

PENN ANCIENT WORKSHOP

January 18, 2014

University of Pennsylvania, Cohen Hall 392 

Breakfast in Philosophy Department Lounge (4th floor Cohen Hall; 8:30 am to 9 am)

SESSION 1: Structure and Content of the Menexenus (9 am to 10 am)

Jeffrey Turner (Bucknell University), "On the Structure of Plato's Menexenus"

Fred Erdman (University of Dallas), "The Opening Question of Plato's Menexenus"

 

SESSION 2: Rhetoric in the Menexenus (10:15 am to 11:45 am) 

Nickolas Pappas (City College of New York), "Improvisatory Rhetoric in the Menexenus"

Dan Larkin (University of Memphis), "Surely You Can't Be Serious: Understanding the Role of Rhetoric in Plato's Menexenus"

Brian Reese (University of Pennsylvania), "The Menexenus: An Instance of Morally Beneficial Rhetoric"

 

SESSION 3: The Menexenus and the Laws (12 pm to 1 pm)

Brian Marrin (Boston College), "The Rhetoric of Natural Law: Isogonia and Isonomia in Plato's Menexenus"

Harold Parker (University of Pennsylvania), "A Strange Migration in the Menexenus and the Laws"

 

Lunch in Philosophy Department Lounge (4th floor Cohen Hall; 1 to 2:30 pm)

  

SESSION 4: Characters in the Menexenus: Pericles, Aspasia, Socrates, and Menexenus (2:30 pm to 4 pm)

Marc Zelcer (Ph.D., CUNY), "On Plato's Pericles"

Joanne Waugh (University of South Florida), "Disembodying Virtue: Socrates and Aspasia"

Bradley Van Uden (Duquesne University), "The Politics of Pity"

 

SESSION 5: Politics and the Menexenus (4:15 pm to 5:45 pm)

Etienne Helmer (University of Puerto Rico), "Does the politeia feed its citizens? On "trophè" in the Menexenus"

Andreas Avgousti (Columbia University), “Reputation in Plato’s Menexenus”

Jan Maximilian Robitzsch (University of Pennsylvania), "Athenians, Greeks, Barbarians: The Politics of Identity in the Menexenus"