Tundraco's Daily Living Guide to Book Reviews

Acastos Two Platonic Dialogues By Iris Murdoch Penguin (1988) ISBN 10: 014008696X ISBN 13: 978-0140086966

Reviewed by Israel Drazin - April 1, 2010

Iris Murdoch is both a philosopher and novelist. Acastos is the name of a fictional character who together with his friends has two dialogues in two plays with the great Greek philosopher Socrates, who died in 399 BCE. Murdoch uses her plays both to explore two subjects but also to mock Socrates' pupil, the philosopher Plato, and his philosophy.

The first play Art and Eros is about art. What constitutes art? Does it copy nature or present something new? Does it teach truth? What is good and what is bad art? Is art related to the mind or to feelings? What does art teach? Does good art make better citizens? Is all art bad and even dangerous and should be banned, as Plato claims, because art is just an illusion and an illusion is not the truth, and art makes people satisfied and even delighted with illusions when they should be seeking the truth even though it is difficult to deal with the truth? Does Murdoch's Socrates utterly destroy Plato's philosophy in this play by saying that Plato is overly idealistic and that good art can teach people us much about themselves and the rest of the world? These are some of the many questions that are in this play.

Murdoch's second play Above the Gods is, as its subtitle states, A Dialogue about Religion. Is religion outdated, unscientific, full of superstition, a belief in and a reliance on magic? Is it at an outdated attempt to explain the world that is now primitive science? Does it stop thinking because it insists that people rely on traditions and faith? Is it useful for uneducated people because it helps control them? Is there a difference between morality and religion? Can morality exist without religion? Is Plato correct that a person should seek the find "truth," which is "above (passive reliance on) the gods"? Or, is Murdoch's Socrates correct when he criticizes Plato for being too idealistic and seeking complicated solutions when he should be using common sense, for the common people cannot understand and accept Plato's teaching?

Dr. Israel Drazin is the author of fifteen books, including a series of five volumes on the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible, which he co-authors with Rabbi Dr. Stanley M. Wagner, and a series of four books on the twelfth century philosopher Moses Maimonides, the latest being Maimonides: Reason Above All, published by Gefen Publishing House, www.gefenpublishing.com. The Orthodox Union (OU) publishes daily samples of the Targum books on www.ouradio.org

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