Philosophy has consistently used theater throughout history as a privileged metaphor for its own, theoretical procedures. Plato regarded the artistic form of theater as morally dangerous and epistemologically counter-productive. Yet at the same time, Plato explains the seamless functioning of the ideal republic as the perfect form of theater. On the other end of the historical arc-from Hegel to Deleuze and beyond-the development of philosophical concepts was understood precisely as a dramatization or performance of some sort. Which is it, then? Is theater a competitor, a detractor, or a companion of theory in its pursuit of the truth?
