Plato’s Statesman Revisited

Description

This volume tackles both the apparent lack of unity and the perplexing philosophical content of the Statesman as it explores, in what is now Plato's second account, subsequent to that of the Republic, of what would constitute the best society, the role and nature of the statesman in it; the art of governance of it; the role and nature of its laws; the role and status of its female citizens; and how the virtues are interwoven within it, along with many other topics, including (in a major Myth) that of the origins of the universe and of humankind. Coming as they do from often widely differing hermeneutical traditions, the authors in the volume offer responses to substantive and intriguing questions that the dialogue raises which are frequently divergent, but by that very token of much value in any attempt to interpret a complex and multifaceted work. Frontmatter......Page 1 Contents......Page 5 Introduction......Page 9 Taking Frustration Seriously. Reading Plato’s Statesman as a Protreptic to Political Science......Page 17 The Multifocal Approach: The Statesman as the Key to Plato’s Political Philosophy......Page 41 Theoretical, not practical: the opening arguments of Plato’s Politicus (Plt., 258e–259d)......Page 59 True and Correct in the Politicus......Page 77 Paradigm, Form and the Good in Plato’s Statesman: The Myth Revisited......Page 89 God and Cosmos in Politicus 269c–270a and Aristotle......Page 109 Plato’s Reign of Kronos: Proclus’ Interpretation of the Myth in the Politicus......Page 121 Demiurgy in Heavens. An Ancient Account in Plato’s Statesman......Page 143 The avoidance of errors, a sense of «due measure»......Page 159 On the Art of Weaving and the Act of Thinking in Plato’s Statesman......Page 171 Weaving the Polis. Reading Plato’s Statesman (279a–283d)......Page 183 Plato’s Stateswomen......Page 195 Mimesis in the Politicus......Page 207 The very difficult separation from the chorus of the greatest magician of all the sophists......Page 229 On the Limits of Law and the Sovereignty of the Wise. Conjectures about the Primacy of Law in Plato’s Statesman......Page 245 Divine and Human Bonds: The Essence of the Art of Politics......Page 259 On Virtue and Wisdom in the Protagoras, the Phaedo and the Politicus: One Thesis or Several?......Page 281 ‘Moderation’ and Courage in Plato’s Politicus (305e–311c)......Page 303 Bibliography......Page 321 List of Contributors......Page 335 Index Locorum......Page 339