Plato And The City
A New Introduction to Plato's Political Thought
Distributed for Liverpool University Press
Translated by Janet Lloyd
176 pages
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8-2/5 x 5-3/10
Plato and the City is a general introduction to Plato's political thought. It covers the main periods of Platonic thought, examining those dialogues that best show how Plato makes the city's unity the aim of politics and then makes the quest for that unity the aim of philosophy. From the psychological model (the city is like a great soul) to the physiological definition (the city is a living being), the reader can traverse the whole of Plato's oeuvre, and understand it as a political philosophy.
The book is designed to be an undergraduate textbook but will also be of interest to scholars. It is the first English translation of Platon et la cité, published in French by Presses Universitaires de France in 1997 as part of the series Philosophies, and offers English-speaking readers access to a more unifying continental European reading of Plato than is common in UK or North American scholarship.
Professor Janet Coleman
“There is much learning in this short book, and rather a lot to be argued over.” –Professor Janet Coleman, London School of Economics and Political Science
Contents
Translator's Note
Foreword by Christopher Gill
Author's Note
Introduction
1. "I am no politician" (Socrates)
Socrates against his city
The wrecking of the Athenian maritime empire: the Menexenus
Political competence
2. The political psychology of the Republic
The great soul that is the city
Serving the city
Political science (and politics)
3. Producing the city: the Statesman
The conditions necessary for political technique
The object of politics
Political demiurgy
Laws and ways of life
4. The life of the city: the Timaeus-Critias
The world of the city
The political living being
5. The city, a world of politics: the Laws
The laws of the constitution
The constitution of the city
The order of the world
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
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