Nalin Ranasinghe Book order

This is a posthumously published collection of Nalin Ranasinghe's sharp analyses of Shakespeare's five heavy dramas: Hamlet, King John, Julius Caesar, King Lear, and Antony and Cleopatra. True to form, Ranasinghe serves up philosophical and literary genius for the reader's benefit and delight. "I will try to claim that Shakespeare offers an esoteric vindication of the human soul itself, not merely poetry, against the looming backdrop of the Counter-Reformation in Europe and the Puritan perversion of English Anglicanism. Neither the Scholasticism of the former nor the fundamentalism of the latter had any sympathy for the claims of men like Bottom or the Bastard to see beyond the confines of scripture and sacred social structures. While poetry could indulge in metaphysical fantasy, it could not take on the status quo without the assistance of more learned allies; this Shakespeare seems to do by his re-telling of Classical and English history. As disingenuous as Bottom (or Erasmus) in this artful use of ignorance and folly to conceal his serious goals, Shakespeare is thus tying poetry to history and giving us an alternate, if playful, account of Western Civilization."

Nalin Ranasinghe boldly critiques humanity through the lens of Homer's epics, particularly focusing on Odysseus as a complex character embodying both virtue and vice. He argues that Homer's insights are foundational to Western civilization and remain relevant today, emphasizing the importance of self-knowledge and moderation. Predrag Cicovacki's preface highlights Ranasinghe's belief that Homer reveals essential truths about the human condition, urging readers to engage with the texts as a means of understanding their own lives and the persistent struggles within human nature.

"In this outstanding and ambitious book, Ranasinghe argues powerfully that Plato's Apology has to be read in the light of Euthyphro, and that we can understand the implications Plato saw in Socrates' trail by studying the Crito in the light of those 'earlier' dialogues. It is essential reading for all with an interest in the 'last days of Socrates,' and will change the views of anyone who reads it." --Back cover.

This is the first full-length monograph to address the religious, ethical, and political dimensions of Plato's Gorgias. The third longest and most serious dialogue has long been neglected because of the disconcerting moral and psychic demands it makes on its readers. Yet such a personal appropriation, equivalent to taking the uncanny daimon of Socrates back to one's cave or body, is the key to understanding the philosopher's paradoxical claim that nobody deliberately chooses to do evil. The dramatic action of the Gorgias shows how angry and insecure men can be led by demagogic rhetoric to perform violent and thoughtless deeds. The repeated performance of such actions has the effect of blinding their judgment to the extent that they truly know not what they do. Deliberately using the disastrous demagogue-driven Peloponnesian War as the backdrop for the Gorgias, Plato suggests that only Socrates practiced the true political art. This art seems to consist of undoing the insidious effects