In this Book

Penn State University Press
buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary
In this first comprehensive treatment of Plato’s political thought in a long time, John Wallach offers a "critical historicist" interpretation of Plato. Wallach shows how Plato’s theory, while a radical critique of the conventional ethical and political practice of his own era, can be seen as having the potential for contributing to democratic discourse about ethics and politics today. The author argues that Plato articulates and "solves" his Socratic Problem in his various dialogues in different but potentially complementary ways. The book effectively extracts Plato from the straightjacket of Platonism and from the interpretive perspectives of the past fifty years—principally those of Karl Popper, Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, M. I. Finley, Jacques Derrida, and Gregory Vlastos. The author’s distinctive approach for understanding Plato—and, he argues, for the history of political theory in general—can inform contemporary theorizing about democracy, opening pathways for criticizing democracy on behalf of virtue, justice, and democracy itself.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Front Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Preface, Acknowledgments
  2. pp. ix-xi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-14
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 1: Settings
  2. p. 15
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. Interpreting Plato Politically
  2. pp. 17-39
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. Historicizing the Platonic Political Art
  2. pp. 41-119
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 2: Interpretations
  2. p. 121
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. The Political Art in Aporetic Dialogues, or Plato’s
  2. pp. 123-211
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. The Constitution of Justice: The Political Art in Plato’s Republic
  2. pp. 213-329
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. The Political Art as Practical Rule
  2. pp. 331-387
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Part 3: An Appropriation
  2. p. 389
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. The Platonic Political Art and Postliberal Democracy
  2. pp. 391-431
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 433-457
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 458-468
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Back Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.