UNR Postdoctoral Seminar || Dr. Marina Marren: Humor and Its Value to Philosophy in Plato and Beyond

The UNR Postdoctoral Seminar Series highlights the work of UNR postdocs through featuring postdoc guest speakers and academic blog posts on the UNRPA website (https://www.unr.edu/postdoc/) -- Seminar Abstract: What does philosophy have to do with comedy or tragedy? What does it have to do with myth? Aren’t the latter simply light forms of entertainment, whereas, philosophy is supposed to be a discipline that has a strict and rigorous methodology, which it pursues to develop the deepest insights about life? Philosophy – as it is commonly understood – has either to do with system-building or with solving quirky puzzles or it can even be seen as a kind of spiritual practice, the last of which is available to everyone. None of these views of philosophy are utterly wrong, but all of them are too restrictive to give us an adequate idea of what it means to philosophize... in the way that the ancient Greeks did. My area of specialization is ancient Greek philosophy and literature (e.g., history, comedy, tragedy, epos, myth). In my research I aim to undo the ingrained interpretations of ancient Greek thinkers, which, regrettably, have become standard. In this talk, I will focus on one of my research interests, which is the role of Plato’s use of comedy as an aesthetic critique of political ideals. The standard view of Plato claims that he was Socrates’ student and that he has outstripped his master. Most think that Plato has come up, for example, with a theory that knowledge depends on our access to a separate, eternal reality. Other ideas attributed to Plato include such notions as the perfect political state; the Good; impossibility of virtue without knowledge; and even separability of the body from the soul. My view is that all of this is completely wrong. The first step that I (following such interpreters of Plato as Seth Benardete, Henry Wolz, Jill Frank, Cinzia Arruzza, David Roochnik, Drew Hyland, and John Sallis, to name just a few) take in my research is to show that Plato is not Socrates. In fact, Plato is not any of his dialogical interlocutors. This means that we cannot attribute anything said by the characters in Plato’s dialogues directly to Plato. To conflate what Socrates says with what Plato may think or what he may want us to believe, would be just as erroneous as to say that because Shakespeare wrote Hamlet, Shakespeare telegraphs his own worldview through Hamlet’s speeches. This is where my interest in drama – comedy, tragedy, and the literary form of the dramatic art – comes in. Once you realize that Plato wrote dialogues that rely on the same dramatic tropes that Sophocles’ and Euripides’ tragedies or Aristophanes’ plays do, you can no longer claim that Plato has a theory of “X” – be it the “best regime,” “the Good,” “the Forms” or what have you. The second step (and this is what I will be largely showcasing in my presentation) is to 1) clearly display the reversal of meaning that takes place when we read Plato through, say, a comedic lens and 2) explain what this reversal means for political philosophy in Plato and for us today. Speaker Biography Dr. Marina Marren earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston College. She researches in ancient Greek, German, and political philosophy. Her book, Plato and Aristophanes: Politics, Comedy, and the Pursuit of a Just Life is forthcoming with the Northwestern UP (November 2021). In addition, she has fifteen published articles in peer-reviewed journals and four chapters in edited volumes. These works include Dr. Marren’s analyses of the relationship between comedy and political philosophy; tragedy and tyranny; as well as her reflections on the conceptual connections between nature and art. She has presented these and other ideas at more than 40 conferences and symposia events. Dr. Marren is a recipient of multiple teaching excellence and mentorship awards. Most recently, she was recognized for her outstanding pedagogy and mentorship by UNR’s Postdoctoral Award for Exceptional Mentoring. She has presented her innovative teaching techniques as a part of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers society at the 2021 Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association meeting. Dr. Marren teaches courses with the Core Humanities and the Department of Philosophy. She will be teaching introduction to ancient philosophy as well as an upper-level course in 19th Century philosophy in the fall semester 2021. In her teaching, Dr. Marren stresses the importance of historical and cultural understanding for student learning. Her style as a mentor focuses on inclusivity, diversity, and encouraging students to take ownership of their learning.