March 5: Faculty Lecture Series - Michael Weinman
On March 5 at 19:30, faculty member Michael Weinman presented his research titled «Why 729? Harmonic theory and dialectic in "Republic," 9»
« My focus here is the passage of Republic (Rsp.) 9 [i.e., 587b-588a] that comes at the very conclusion of the argument that not only does the just man lead a more pleasant life than the unjust man, but precisely a 729 times more pleasant life. Given this placement at the conclusion of an argument that spans eight of Rsp.’s 10 books, we should expect this passage to be relevant for “big picture” interpretive questions; all the more so, since Plato here goes out of his way to “make math an issue” by attaching this coda in which we can precisely calculate the extent of the difference by which the just life is preferable to the unjust life. All the same, this moment has received a good deal less notice than Rsp. 7, 522-532, where the “mathematical disciplines” are discussed in detail.
I propose to make my way (lightly) into these stormy seas by way of the manner in which (as it seems to me) the later passage that is my focus here calls upon and comments upon this earlier discussion of the mathematical arts as “the prelude to the song of dialectic.” Crucial here is the manner in which the salience of the number 729 is elucidated for each of the five mathematical arts named in Book 7, up to but, crucially, excluding harmony. The question, then, will not so much be: “why 729?” We will discuss that at length, but only so as to ask the more telling question: “Why does Plato have Socrates leave out the significance of 729 for harmony, after going pointedly through its relevance for arithmetic, geometry, solid geometry and astronomy?” My proposed answer is that the central harmonic relevance Plato has in mind is an approximation of the ratio “1 : radical 2,” which has salience both for the possibility of halving the whole tone and for the broader issue of the relation of the rational and the irrational. If this salience is there, and if Plato knew, why would he not say so? My suggestion is that he means to offer us a guide to how we ought to understand the relationship between philosophy and mathematics. Namely, mathematics provides the tools by which we can make ever-more-determinate the problems on which we wish to work—here, for instance, the problem of halving the whole tone as a special case of the problem of bringing into ratio (into logos) the irrational (alogikon)—in the service of dialectic. This, I want to suggest, is the relationship of mathematics to philosophy and the meaning of the suggestion that the mathematical arts as a “prelude” to the song of dialectic (532d).» - Michael Weinman
Michael Weinman joined the permanent faculty of ECLA of Bard in September 2012, after originally arriving as a Guest Professor in 2010. Michael received his doctorate in Philosophy in 2005 from The New School for Social Research in New York. He is the author of two books, on pleasure in Aristotle’s ethical thought and the connection between continental philosophy and modernist literature respectively, as well on several articles and books chapters on issues in Greek and political philosophy. His current projects include research on “Pythagorean Harmonics” in the Parthenon and Plato’s Timaeus, conducted jointly with ECLA of Bard faculty member Geoff Lehman, and an investigation of the connection between dialectic and rhetoric in Aristotle’s thought, in cooperation with David McNeill of the University of Essex.
Before joining ECLA of Bard, Michael taught at St. John's College in Annapolis, MD, and in the Department of Philosophy at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be'er Sheva, Israel, among other institutions.
This lecture is part of a series in which ECLA of Bard faculty members present their research to the public.
