Browsing by Author "Warren, L."

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    Towards redefining Socratic irony
    (Stellenbosch University, Department of Ancient Studies, 2013) Warren, L.
    The nature and function of Socratic irony has been much disputed in contemporary scholarship, and there is no source which offers a satisfactory account of Socratic irony. In this article I firstly argue that Socrates’ disavowals of knowledge cannot be taken literally. I then argue that Socrates also has some physical habits, in particular an attitude of superiority and the appropriation of Spartan dress, which can be interpreted as ironic within their historical context, in other words that Socrates’ physical actions also suggest irony. In conclusion I argue that Socratic irony has interlinked political and pedagogic functions, and I offer suggestions for the redefinition of the concept of Socratic irony which allows for these insights.
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    Virtue, masculinity, and hierarchies of domination in Plutarch’s Antony and De Iside
    (Stellenbosch University, Department of Ancient Studies, 2019) Warren, L.
    Plutarch’s Antony and De Iside et Osiride together tackle the manly woman and the effeminate man. I suggest that De Iside is the theoretical exposition of the metaphysics underlying this problem of gender, resolved by gendering the parts of the tripartite soul. In the Antony, these expressions of gender in the body are examined in practice. Female masculinity is defined as a manifestation of virtue without contradicting the natural fact of the female body, while manliness is an unvirtuous expression of a desire to dominate. Plutarch refines the hierarchy of domination that affirms women’s claim to virtue and preserves traditional social order by examining the relation between embodied sex and ensouled gender and assigning an ethical value to its expressions.