Ion by Plato audiobook.

Genre: philosophy

In Ion, Plato stages a sharp and surprisingly playful conversation between Socrates and Ion, a celebrated rhapsode who earns his living performing and interpreting Homer for public audiences. Fresh from a competition victory, Ion claims special expertise in explaining what Homer means about war, leadership, medicine, seamanship, and the gods. Socrates, never satisfied with prestige alone, presses him to define what kind of knowledge his art really provides. Is rhapsodic mastery a teachable craft with clear principles, like navigation or medicine, or does it arise from something less predictable - a contagious force of inspiration that moves from poet to performer to listener? As Ion struggles to defend his authority, Socrates tests the boundaries between skill and enthusiasm, interpretation and possession, criticism and performance. Along the way, Plato offers a compact but far-reaching meditation on creativity, the social power of art, and the uneasy relationship between poetry and truth. Written as a fast-paced dialogue, Ion invites listeners to consider whether great art comes from disciplined understanding or from a kind of divine spark that cannot be fully controlled.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 0

(00:11:40) Chapter 1

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