Guide to Plato's Republic

Daryl Rice is Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, where he teaches political theory and the history of ideas. He has published numerous articles on philosophers ranging from Plato to Rousseau, Whitehead, and Sartre.

lively Guide to Plato's Republic ... a crisp, lucid, interesting introduction for newcomers to the work. R. typically proceeds by lightly summarizing a stretch of the work, drawing out what he sees as the philosophical position it embodies, kthen criticizing this position ... worth considering for anyone who wants students reading the Republic to be provoked into animated argument about its politics. Stephen Halliwell, The Classical Review

• Preface Guide to Pronunciation 1: Philosophy and Ordinary Life (Reading in the Republic: Book I) Plato's Dialogical Style The Sociology of Knowledge and Questioning Authority Appearance and Reality and Questioning Common Sense Normative Philosophy Versus Empirical Enquiry Absolute Philosophy Versus Relative Convention The Normative/Empirical Distinction in a Moralized Cosmos Plato's Diaglogical Style Reconsidered Some Initial Reservations Suggestions for Further Reading 2: Politics and the Ideal City (Reading in the Republic: Books II-V) Plato Versus Hobbes on Justice and Happiness The Construction and Rationale of the Ideal City Art and Censorship The Living Conditions of the Guardians Useful Falsehoods Force in the City and Soul Plato Versus Hobbes on Substantive and Instrumental Reason Suggestions for Further Reading 3: Plato's Metaphysics (Reading in the Republic: Books VI-VII) Metaphysics, Ontology, and Epistemology The Divided Line as an Overview of Plato's Metaphysics Explaining Plato's Metaphysics on its Own Terms The Doctrine of the Forms--Realism Versus Nominalism Dialectic and the Form of God Problems in Plato's Metaphysics Interpreted on its Own Terms Interpreting Plato's Metaphysics from Other Points of View--Acknowledging Finitude Suggestions for Further Reading 4: Plato's Metaphysics and Imperfect Justice (Reading in the Republic : Books VIII-X) The Types of Imperfect Justice Ranking the Types Proofs that Most Just Person is Happiest Critique of the Proofs The Genesis of Imperfection Accounts of Imperfection in Subsequent Philosophy and Political Theory Art Versus Philosophy Revisited and the Myth of Er Suggestions for Furhter Reading 5: Politics in the Face of Finitude (Reading in the Republic: Review of Book VIII) Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, and Tyranny Rejected Democracy by Default Another View--Interpreting Plato as a Proponent of Democracy Appropriating Plato's Criticism of Democracy Democracy and Philosophy Suggestions for Further Reading Selecting Bibliography Index