Ancient Philosophy WIP series: John Proios

This week's topic: John Proios (The University of Chicago), Seeing the Bigger Picture—the Flying Philosopher's Freedom in Plato's Theaetetus. Proios argues that according to the picture Socrates defends, philosophy is itself a social practice, through which new forms of sociality are cultivated and expressed, and that the philosopher's 'flight of the mind' is the grounds for their critique of ordinary social practices (such as oratory). Thus, philosophical 'freedom' is a concrete social condition, which stands in a concrete relation to social reality beyond philosophy, but without involving political activity.