Socratic and Platonic Political Philosophy
Practicing a Politics of Reading

Socratic and Platonic Political Philosophy invites readers to participate in the practices of Socratic and Platonic politics.

Christopher P. Long (Author)

9781107040359, Cambridge University Press

, published 28 November 2014

240 pages
23.8 x 15.7 x 1.6 cm, 0.44 kg

'Long has written a compelling and innovative work on Socratic and Platonic politics. [His] hermeneutic uncovers dimensions of political discourse in Plato that are often overlooked, such as attentiveness, listening, and recollection. His work invites us into collaborative reading with both Plato and the ongoing conversation of contemporary scholarship.' Marina McCoy, Boston College

In the Gorgias, Socrates claims to practice the true art of politics, but the peculiar politics he practices involves cultivating in each individual he encounters an erotic desire to live a life animated by the ideals of justice, beauty and the good. Socratic and Platonic Political Philosophy demonstrates that what Socrates sought to do with those he encountered, Platonic writing attempts to do with readers. Christopher P. Long's attentive readings of the Protagoras, Gorgias, Phaedo, Apology, and Phaedrus invite us to cultivate the habits of thinking and responding that mark the practices of both Socratic and Platonic politics. Platonic political writing is here experienced in a new way as the contours of a politics of reading emerges in which the community of readers is called to consider how a commitment to speaking the truth and acting toward justice can enrich our lives together.

Overture
1. Politics as philosophy
2. Crisis of community
3. Attempting the political art
4. The politics of finitude
5. Socratic disturbances, Platonic politics
6. The politics of writing
7. Philosophy as politics.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]