Philosophy as Agôn

In Philosophy as Ag n: 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 ag n (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 agonistic--involving the adversarial engagement of others in dialogue such that one's integrity is put to the test through this engagement, and where the ag n 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 ag n 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 (ask sis) of oneself in relation to others.