Philosophy as Agn

In Philosophy as Agn: A Study of Plato's Gorgias and Related Texts, Robert Metcalf offers a fresh interpretation of Plato's dialogues as dramatic texts whose philosophy is not so much a matter of doctrine as it is a dynamic, nondogmatic, and open-ended practice of engaging others in agonistic dialogue. Metcalf challenges prevailing interpretations according to which the agn (contest or struggle) between the interlocutors in the dialogues is inessential to Plato's philosophical purpose, or simply a reflection of the cultural background of ancient Greek life. Instead, he argues that Plato understands philosophy as essentially agonisticinvolving the adversarial engagement of others in dialogue such that one's integrity is put to the test through this engagement, and where the agn is structured so as to draw adversaries together in agreement about the matters at issue, though that agreement is always open to future contest. Based on a careful reading of the Gorgias and related Socratic dialogues, such as Apology and Theaetetus, Metcalf contends that agn is indispensable to the critique of prevailing opinions, to the transformation of the interlocutor through shame-inducing refutation, and to philosophy as a lifelong training (asksis) of oneself in relation to others.