The Platonic Political Art: A Study of Critical Reason and Democracy

The Platonic Political Art: A Study of Critical Reason and Democracy

by John R. Wallach
The Platonic Political Art: A Study of Critical Reason and Democracy

The Platonic Political Art: A Study of Critical Reason and Democracy

by John R. Wallach

eBook

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Overview

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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780271076799
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Publication date: 12/16/2015
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 480
File size: 892 KB

About the Author

John R. Wallach is Associate Professor of Political Science at Hunter College, CUNY. His previous book, co-edited with J. Peter Euben and Josiah Ober, is Athenian Political Thought and the Reconstruction of American Democracy (1994).

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgmentsix
Introduction1
Part ISettings
1Interpreting Plato Politically17
A.Practical Obstacles: Moving from Here to Antiquity17
B.Interpretive Obstacles18
C.Discursive Horizons: Critical Historicism30
2Historicizing the Platonic Political Art41
A.The Historicity of Plato's Socratic Problem42
B.The Practical Context50
C.The Discursive Context71
D.The Textual Context81
E.The Historical Socrates and the Platonic Political Art92
Part IIInterpretations
3The Political Art in Aporetic Dialogues, or Plato's Socratic Problem Amid Athenian Conventions123
A.Conceptual Tools125
B.Liminal Relations of Virtue and the Political Art131
C.Aporetic Treatments of the Political Art144
4The Constitution of Justice: The Political Art in Plato's Republic213
A.The Republic as Original Political Theory217
B.Techne and Justice234
C.Platonic Justice and Democracy278
D.Logos and Ergon302
5The Political Art as Practical Rule331
A.Political Leadership: On Plato's Statesman335
B.Constitutional Laws: On Plato's Laws354
Part IIIAn Appropriation
6The Platonic Political Art and Postliberal Democracy391
A.Dehistoricizing and Rehistoricizing Plato392
B.Plato in Contemporary Political Theory396
C.Plato and Critical Citizenship Today410
Bibliography433
Index458
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