The Neoplatonists

Abstract

Abstract After establishing a mode of reading Settembrini’s works of Platonic fiction by paying attention to planted allusions and clues in chapter 6, Capra and Graziosi apply the same approach to The Neoplatonists and discover a passage that was, up to now, taken to be a misquotation or invention but which, they show, is a precise allusion to a specific sentence in Plato. This key insight shows the connections between a fiction set in ancient Greece, an intellectual disagreement with ascetic Platonism, and a firm commitment to embodied happiness. It is also a precise recollection of the most dramatic episode in Settembrini’s own life. Beyond the influence of Plato, this chapter demonstrates the importance of Cuoco’s Plato in Italy for Settembrini: that work suggested a specific mode of engagement with classical literature and a path towards the political and intellectual emancipation of the Italian south—via the legacies of Greece.