The Cambridge Companion to Plato's Republic

by Edited by G. R. F. Ferrari

• ISBN13: 9780521548427
• ISBN10: 052154842X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-06-18
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This Companion provides a fresh and comprehensive account of this outstanding work, which remains among the most frequently read works of Greek philosophy, indeed of Classical antiquity in general. The sixteen essays, by authors who represent various academic disciplines, bring a spectrum of interpretive approaches to bear in order to aid the understanding of a wide-ranging audience, from first-time readers of the Republic who require guidance, to more experienced readers who wish to explore contemporary currents in the work's interpretation. The three initial chapters address aspects of the work as a whole. They are followed by essays that match closely the sequence in which topics are presented in the ten books of the Republic. Since the Republic returns frequently to the same topics by different routes, so do the authors of this volume, who provide the readers with divergent yet complementary perspectives by which to appreciate the Republic's principal concerns.

Table of Contents

Contributors	p. ix
Abbreviations	p. xiii
Editor's Introduction	p. xv
The Protreptic Rhetoric of the Republic	p. 1
The Place of the Republic in Plato's Political Thought	p. 27
Rewriting the Poets in Plato's Characters	p. 55
Wise Guys and Smart Alecks in Republic 1 and 2	p. 90
Justice and Virtue: The Republic's Inquiry into Proper Difference	p. 116
The Noble Lie	p. 138
The Three-Part Soul	p. 165
Eros in the Republic	p. 202
The Utopian Character of Plato's Ideal City	p. 232
Philosophy, the Forms, and the Art of Ruling	p. 256
Sun and Line: The Role of the Good	p. 284
Beginning the "Longer Way"	p. 310
The City-Soul Analogy	p. 345
The Unhappy Tyrant and the Craft of Inner Rule	p. 386
What Is Imitative Poetry and Why Is It Bad?	p. 415
The Life-and-Death Journey of the Soul: Interpreting the Myth of Er	p. 445
Bibliography	p. 474
Index of Passages	p. 511
Index of Names and Subjects	p. 527
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