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Customer Review
31 of 35 people found the following review helpful
A note on 'pre-political' Esoteric Practices, March 30, 2007
Review Details
Item
A Commentary on Plato's
Meno
(5 customer reviews)
Jacob Klein is often describes as a 'Straussian' - but of course this is perfectly untrue. Leo
Strauss and Klein (and perhaps even Alexandre Kojeve too) either stumbled upon the practice of
pre-modern philosophic esotericism on their own and/or while in contact with each other. Well,
this last is an exaggeration too, it is more likely that Kojeve picked it up from the other two
rather than his arriving at it entirely on his own as an original insight. Now, all three of these
thinkers had been exposed to the greatest song-and-dance man (i.e., Martin Heidegger) of
twentieth century philosophy in their formative periods and thus his maneuvering was a great
influence on them all. Besides this, Strauss was deeply influenced by several non-Christian
Medieval Philosophers (e.g., Alfarabi, Averroes, Maimonides) while both Klein and Kojeve seem
to have been almost entirely innocent of the influence of these Falasifa.
In the letters exchanged between Strauss and Kojeve ('On Tyranny', Revised and Expanded
Edition, U. Chi. Pr., 2000) we see the regard and respect these two thinkers had for Klein. For
instance, in the letter of 8/22/48 Strauss says of his interpretation of Xenophan that "I know of
no one besides yourself [i.e., Kojeve] and Klein who will understand what I am after...' (p. 236).
This respect for Klein was shared by Kojeve: in a letter of 3/29/62 Kojeve says, "Except for
yourself [i.e., Strauss] and Klein I have not yet found anybody from whom I could learn
something." (p. 307). There are, by the way, several amusing asides about Kleins almost
legendary indolence. I share one example that might be apropos here: "Klein claims to have
finished his book on the Meno -only three more months for checking on the footnotes- but since
he has said more or less the same three years ago I believe I shall have to wait another lustrum
for its appearance." (Letter of 5/29/1962, Strauss to Kojeve, p. 309).
Well, Klein was, in fact, as Strauss divined only 'about' finished (the published date, 1965, is
three years after the amusing remarks of Strauss above) but the result, this book, was well
worth waiting for. Now, why has this book been in print for 40 odd years? -Because the 'Meno'
dialogue is so popular? To be honest, I rather doubt it! It is because the 'Introductory Remarks'
at the beginning of this book contain one of the best brief discussions of how to read Plato -that
is, how to take into account Plato's esotericism- that I am aware of. In fact, if a novice were to
ask me where to first learn of Plato's art of 'cautious writing' - this is the first book I would send
him to.
Why? Because Klein gives an extremely acute explanation (and demonstration) of the ancient
way of employing esotericism as a method (and a necessity!) of 'soulcraft'. Klein begins the
Introductory Remarks by acclimating the student to the notion that the Platonic dialogues are
dramatic encounters and not some sort of failed Aristotelian treatise. (It is shameful how many
academics still think that it is a great pity that Plato did not write Treatises!) It is in the
intercourse between the actions and speeches of the participants in these dialogues that Plato's
meaning and intentions emerge. Klein correctly tells us that the dialogues "intent is to imitate
oral instruction." In order to do this Plato writes mini-dramas that subtly indicate more than they
say.
A means of doing this is irony. But Socratic Irony was not the same as the older types of irony.
"The old Irony of the tragic or comic reversal of fortune they perfectly appreciated. But this new
kind, which had a trick of making you uncomfortable if you took it as a joke and of getting you
laughed at if you took it seriously? People did not like it, did not know what to make of it. But
they were quite sure it was Irony." Socratic Irony, unlike the irony of the theatre, intends to
force you to reveal yourself. Uncomfortable? - You should be! Plato is neither simply telling a
story nor, less simply, lecturing us on philosophical issues; - Plato is trying to get us, dear
readers, to reveal our very souls!
Thus Klein says that for any statement to be ironical in the Socratic sense "there must be
someone capable of understanding that it is ironical." Socrates "is not ironical to satisfy himself."
We are all called upon to be 'silent participants', not 'indifferent spectators' of these dialogues.
Klein correctly adds that, "a (Platonic) dialogue has not taken place if we, the listeners or
readers, did not actively participate in it..." The Socratic Dialogue is a form of writing that must
be completed by our active, but dialogically silent, participation. But why should we participate?
Klein quotes a scholar, "The dialogues are dramas in which the destiny of the human soul is at
stake." But to the scholar Klein here quotes the give and take in the dialogues is only a sport of
curious aesthetic appeal. Klein will have none of it: "We have to play our role in them too. We
have to be serious about the contention that a Platonic dialogue, being indeed an 'imitation of
Socrates,' actually continues Socrates' work." The dialogues are notorious for their many
difficulties (aporias) and it often seems Plato had no solution at all. But "we are compelled to
admit to ourselves our ignorance, that it is up to us to get out of the impasse and to reach a
conclusion, if it is reachable at all. We are one of the elements of the dialogue and perhaps the
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Reviewer
Joseph Martin
"pomonomo2003"
Location: NJ, USA
Top Reviewer Ranking: 42,220
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M. Campbell says:
save the preface for your edition of the work. I think what you wrote is really
interesting, but i'd much rather see a concise summary rather than an
interpretation here.
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7 of 15 people think this post adds to the discussion. Do you?
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Stalin: Volume I:
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