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Comic Socrates?: The Clouds, taste and philosophy

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Comic Socrates? The Clouds, taste and philosophy. / Diken, Bulent; Laustsen, Carsten Bagge.
In: Cultural Politics, Vol. 18, No. 2, 01.07.2022, p. 247-263.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review

Harvard

Diken, B & Laustsen, CB 2022, 'Comic Socrates? The Clouds, taste and philosophy', Cultural Politics, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 247-263. https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-9716296

APA

Diken, B., & Laustsen, C. B. (2022). Comic Socrates? The Clouds, taste and philosophy. Cultural Politics, 18(2), 247-263. https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-9716296

Vancouver

Diken B, Laustsen CB. Comic Socrates? The Clouds, taste and philosophy. Cultural Politics. 2022 Jul 1;18(2):247-263. doi: 10.1215/17432197-9716296

Author

Diken, Bulent ; Laustsen, Carsten Bagge. / Comic Socrates? The Clouds, taste and philosophy. In: Cultural Politics. 2022 ; Vol. 18, No. 2. pp. 247-263.

Bibtex

@article{d75392b3c4d748e38b9bbf0cadf59baf,
title = "Comic Socrates?: The Clouds, taste and philosophy",
abstract = "In the Clouds, Aristophanes apparently ridicules Socratic philosophy as a useless, essentially passive preoccupation, which, {\textquoteleft}twisted{\textquoteright} in wrong hands, can seriously harm the City. But such an instrumentalist reading of the Clouds (and of philosophy) misses a crucial point regarding the relation between philosophy and comedy. Insofar as philosophy, love of wisdom, is irreducible to wisdom, insofar as, in other words, philosophy is also a matter of taste (a concept which seeks to combine knowledge and pleasure), the Clouds can be read as an ironic-comic defense of philosophy. To discuss this, the paper reads the Clouds in the perspective of free use. This reading makes it possible to articulate two distinct but related senses of perverting philosophy, which are evidenced with material from within the play: the reduction of reason to instrumental reason and/or to State philosophy. To end with, the paper discusses the relationship between comedy and philosophy in more general terms.",
author = "Bulent Diken and Laustsen, {Carsten Bagge}",
note = "Copyright {\textcopyright} 2022 by Duke University Press",
year = "2022",
month = jul,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1215/17432197-9716296",
language = "English",
volume = "18",
pages = "247--263",
journal = "Cultural Politics",
issn = "1743-2197",
publisher = "Berg Publishers",
number = "2",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Comic Socrates?

T2 - The Clouds, taste and philosophy

AU - Diken, Bulent

AU - Laustsen, Carsten Bagge

N1 - Copyright © 2022 by Duke University Press

PY - 2022/7/1

Y1 - 2022/7/1

N2 - In the Clouds, Aristophanes apparently ridicules Socratic philosophy as a useless, essentially passive preoccupation, which, ‘twisted’ in wrong hands, can seriously harm the City. But such an instrumentalist reading of the Clouds (and of philosophy) misses a crucial point regarding the relation between philosophy and comedy. Insofar as philosophy, love of wisdom, is irreducible to wisdom, insofar as, in other words, philosophy is also a matter of taste (a concept which seeks to combine knowledge and pleasure), the Clouds can be read as an ironic-comic defense of philosophy. To discuss this, the paper reads the Clouds in the perspective of free use. This reading makes it possible to articulate two distinct but related senses of perverting philosophy, which are evidenced with material from within the play: the reduction of reason to instrumental reason and/or to State philosophy. To end with, the paper discusses the relationship between comedy and philosophy in more general terms.

AB - In the Clouds, Aristophanes apparently ridicules Socratic philosophy as a useless, essentially passive preoccupation, which, ‘twisted’ in wrong hands, can seriously harm the City. But such an instrumentalist reading of the Clouds (and of philosophy) misses a crucial point regarding the relation between philosophy and comedy. Insofar as philosophy, love of wisdom, is irreducible to wisdom, insofar as, in other words, philosophy is also a matter of taste (a concept which seeks to combine knowledge and pleasure), the Clouds can be read as an ironic-comic defense of philosophy. To discuss this, the paper reads the Clouds in the perspective of free use. This reading makes it possible to articulate two distinct but related senses of perverting philosophy, which are evidenced with material from within the play: the reduction of reason to instrumental reason and/or to State philosophy. To end with, the paper discusses the relationship between comedy and philosophy in more general terms.

U2 - 10.1215/17432197-9716296

DO - 10.1215/17432197-9716296

M3 - Journal article

VL - 18

SP - 247

EP - 263

JO - Cultural Politics

JF - Cultural Politics

SN - 1743-2197

IS - 2

ER -