The Philosopher’s New Clothes: The Theaetetus, the Academy, and Philosophy’s Turn against Fashion

This book takes a new approach to the question, Is the philosopher to be seen as universal human being or as eccentric? . Through a reading of the Theaetetus, Pappas first considers how we identify philosophers - how do they appear, in particular how do they dress? The book moves to modern philosophical treatments of fashion, and of anti-fashion . He argues that aspects of the fashion/anti-fashion debate apply to antiquity, indeed that nudity at the gymnasia was an anti-fashion. Thus anti-fashion provides a way of viewing ancient philosophy’s orientation toward a social world in which, for all its true existence elsewhere, philosophy also has to live.