Description
Book SynopsisTo the vast literature on Plato's Republic comes a new interpretation. In Beautiful City, David Roochnik argues convincingly that Plato's masterpiece is misunderstood by modern readers. The work must, he explains, be read dialectically, its parts...
Trade ReviewDoes Plato's Republic defend an authoritarian and monistic political system?... All of us (historians, political philosophers, classicists) who are rather ill-disposed toward the political implications in Plato's book should read David Roochnik's rebuttal of this standard view.... I can warmly recommend this book to utopian scholars who want to have a knowledgeable and insightful guide to the complex dialectical drama that is Plato's Republic.
-- Petteri Pietikainen, University of Hawaii * Utopian Studies *
In this slim but elegantly written volume, Roochnik (philosophy, Boston Univ.) treats Plato's 'Republic' as a dialogue, which is to say that he is attentive to the fact that 'The Republic' develops and builds as a conversation might, with progressive revisions, qualifications, and attention to the method of the dialectic itself.... Roochnik's approach is persuasive and highly recommended to scholars of the classical world. Summing Up: Highly recommended.
* Choice *
R. has offered a clearly articulated, carefully argued, and hermeneutically innovative reading of the most complex and difficult text in the Platonic corpus. The book is selective in its focus and rigorous in its development. It makes no attempt to exhaust the inexhaustible Republic, no attempt to solve all of the dilemmas raised by this text or by the voluminous literature on the dialogue. It picks its fights carefully and strategically, never losing itself in scholarly minutiae, always illuminating through its disagreements. It is ultimately a provocative book.
-- Colin A. Anderson, Hiram College * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
Table of ContentsPart 1 The arithmetical: Tripartite city, tripartite soul; The one, the two, and the three; The arithmetical character of Kallipolis. Part 2 Eros: Intimations of Eros; The three waves; Kallipolis v. The republic. Part 3 Democracy, psychology, poetry: Democracy; Narrative psychology; Psychological narrative. Appendix The meaning of "dialectical": The technical meaning of "dialectic"; The non-technical of "dialectic"; Dialectic in the "Republic".
