By, Hester Abrams
1 min read
ByHester Abrams, Hester Abrams
By Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
Atlantic Books, £16.99 (ebook £14)
What would Plato say? is a question seldom heard these days. That an ancient Greek philosopher could speak to contemporary concerns, with a freshness and acuity intelligible to the most attention deficient among us, sounds preposterous.
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is a much garlanded proponent of philosophy, known for grappling elegantly with the abstract in The Mind-Body Problem and 36 Arguments for the Existence of God. She aims to persuade us that philosophy is accessible, relevant and urgent. Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away makes a time-travelling Plato the hero of a high-minded yet comic 21st-century re-imagining of his Dialogues.
A 2,400-year-old-man walks into Google's HQ, inappropriately dressed for California in chiton and sandals. Unaware how much time has passed and with no inkling he might have got any of his ideas wrong, Plato is still seeking a philosopher-king, and still under the spell of his friend Socrates.
The father of Western Philosophy gets into a debate with his media escort and a Greek vs Geek face-off with a software engineer. The minder finds some of his statements unethical and his language sexist. But Plato's a fast learner. He soon stops mentioning slaves and even picks up the right use of the word "chutzpah".
Goldstein flatters the reader with the idea that we can all do philosophy, that its questions are not just reserved for experts. Like the gadfly stinging the back of a horse (as Socrates described himself when facing death for bringing philosophy to the people), Goldstein wants to jolt us out of complacency and involve us individually in teasing out the nature of a good life, an examined life.
She has great fun testing modern-day obsessions against Plato's thought, making him mediate between a Warrior Mother and an attachment parenting expert, and pitting him against a Christian cable TV host who believes all philosophy to be pointless bullshit.
The denser but still virtuosic half of the book puts Plato into context. It explains ancient Greek values, follows the trial and execution of Socrates, and conjectures what Plato really meant.
Maybe the universal quest for knowledge and wisdom has reached its apex with Google. "So all of knowledge is concentrated right here at the Googleplex and those who work here are privy to all knowledge?" Plato ventures.
Hearing the crowd-sourcing of information hailed as a democratising force, a coldness falls over him. A disquisition on tyranny follows, with a warning from Greek history that a tyrant can often appear as a friend of the people, before abusing power.
Goldstein does not force us to choose between metaphysics and entertainment; she sparkles in both. She gives the last laugh to Plato. He's out there now for you: @platobooktour. Go on, tweet him a question.
Hester Abrams is a journalist and literary consultant