In times of chaos, when new orders and institutions are forming, great storytellers seize the opportunity.
Plato, in the Republic, famously presented story selection as a foundational question for lawgivers to address. Plato wanted to know what kind of stories would produce the ideal human being, and in turn, the ideal state.
Dr Alex Petkas, writer and host of The Cost of Glory podcast, will present a lesson in the theory and practice of storytelling from Plato. He will examine Plato's interest in narrative in the context of his philosophy and his very active career in politics and statecraft, including his troubled experiments with the Sicilian tyrants at Syracuse.
He will also look at the work of one of Plato's greatest literary imitators in antiquity, the philosopher Plutarch, author of the Parallel Lives. A less-often cited essay of the modern theorist of mimesis, the late René Girard, offers insight on how Plato's lesson is salient for modern humanists.
Please join us for the first public lecture of the academic year in our new College building, the Athenaeum, at 26 East Gaston Street.
