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Thinking Through The Clouds: Comedy in Hegel and Strauss
Linden, Ari
Linden, Ari
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Abstract
This article reconstructs a dialogue between three modern philosophical treatments of the Ancient Greek comic poet Aristophanes's play, The Clouds (first performed in 423 BCE), which has generally been received as an unjust satire of Socrates. I argue that Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Leo Strauss all assume a rather unconventional position in their respective readings—especially given their status as philosophers—by actually coming to the comedian's defense, and by showing, in distinct but related ways, how his play grasps the “negativity” in Socrates more profoundly than do the other depictions of the philosopher that have been bequeathed to posterity. By further appealing to the hidden affinities between Aristophanes and Socrates, each of these modern thinkers, finally, shows himself to be invested in the specific function of the comedian‐satirist within the polis, an investment that has implications for both antiquity and modernity.
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This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Linden, Ari. "Thinking Through the Clouds: Comedy in Hegel and Strauss." The German Quarterly (USA) 90.4 (Fall 2017): 423-438, which has been published in final form at http://doi.org/10.1111/gequ.12048. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
Date
2017-11-02
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Wiley
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Hegel, Leo Strauss, Aristophanes, Comedy, Socrates
Citation
Linden, Ari. "Thinking Through the Clouds: Comedy in Hegel and Strauss." The German Quarterly (USA) 90.4 (Fall 2017): 423-438