2018 Theses Doctoral
Beauty on Display: Plato and the Concept of the Kalon
A central concept for Plato is the kalon – often translated as the beautiful, fine, admirable, or noble. This dissertation shows that only by prioritizing dimensions of beauty in the concept can we understand the nature, use, and insights of the kalon in Plato. The concept of the kalon organizes aspirations to appear and be admired as beautiful for one’s virtue. We may consider beauty superficial and concern for it vain – but what if it were also indispensable to living well? By analyzing how Plato uses the concept of the kalon to contest cultural practices of shame and honour regulated by ideals of beauty, we come to see not only the tensions within the concept but also how attractions to beauty steer, but can subvert, our attempts to live well.
Subjects
Files
- Fine_columbia_0054D_14953.pdf application/pdf 1.56 MB Download File
More About This Work
- Academic Units
- Philosophy
- Thesis Advisors
- Mann, Wolfgang R.
- Degree
- Ph.D., Columbia University
- Published Here
- October 9, 2018