located bodies

1. located bodies • an argument – • we find ourselves in connections • through articulations of people and things • in particular circumstances (location/context matters) • – fordistributedbodies

2. ten located bodies • this will be my particular take on our course bodies in place – presenting ten different kinds of located body • it will be by no means an exhaustive list • they will not be exclusive categories but will overlap and complement • the ten are suggestive rather than definitive

3. located bodies – onethe citizen body • Socrates in Athens - the classical polis

4. the dialogue – Crito • Crito wants to get Socrates out of Athens • Socrates answers with an argument about the state and its citizens • about the constitution of the state and order • and about the constitution of the good life

5. the polis • Socrates discusses duty and the obligations of the individual to the collective • some terms he uses • hoi Athenaioi – the Athenians – fellow politai • hoi polloi – the many, the majority, the mob • he polis – the state • to koinon – the commonwealth • hoi nomoi – laws • homologia – the (social) contract • consider Crito 50a

6. the alternative to his citizen identity • Thessaly – dislocation • some terms applied to Thessaly • metoikein – to live as an alien • (no) homologia – no social contract • ataxia – disorder (cf kosmos) • akolasia – license and incontinence • Socrates would be out of place and laughable

7. Athens – hoi Athenaioi • Socrates and Plato are discoursing in the city of Athens

8. the urban state • a public sphere for an elite citizen body • spaces for a leisured class to meet, talk, take decisions • a physical setting for an oral and literate culture

9. where democracy happened • the ekklesia – the assembly • the boule – the council • the importance of public speaking, leadership, argument, rhetoric

10. democratic imperialism • the Athenian Empire • class conflict – old aristocracy, new citizen mobility, citizens and others • old patterns of patronage and leadership giving way • war – with Sparta, Korinth and Syracuse – and defeat

11. the sophists • Socrates was identified with this group of intellectuals and teachers who serviced the desire on the part of the citizen body to learn and practice public discourse • some names – Gorgias, Protogoras, Euthydemos • developing an intellectual discourse pertinent to these urban and political spaces • Plato despised them (seeing Socrates as pursuing not the skill of discourse per se but its object – questions of right and wrong)

12. sophistry and dialectics • the importance of peitho – persuasion • sometimes caricatured as the skill of arguing any case – whatever the truth or consequences • sometimes associated with an aversion to popular will – seen as ignorant and manipulated by the skilled speaker (this sometimes given as the reason for the downfall of Athenian democracy)

13. the sophists • part of an intellectual shift to making people the center of thought and debate • through some classics oppositions such as • nomos and phusis – convention and reality • might and right

14. located bodies – onethe citizen body • where is it located? • in such urban, urbane • and political spaces • riddled with contradiction and tension • the spaces and the community • constitute each other • Athens is the Athenians • just as the physical community • is the citizen • Socrates relates himself to this • polis of constituted politai