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.

• PrefaceGuide to Pronunciation1: Philosophy and Ordinary Life (Reading in the Republic: Book I)Plato's Dialogical StyleThe Sociology of Knowledge and Questioning AuthorityAppearance and Reality and Questioning Common SenseNormative Philosophy Versus Empirical EnquiryAbsolute Philosophy Versus Relative ConventionThe Normative/Empirical Distinction in a Moralized CosmosPlato's Diaglogical Style ReconsideredSome Initial ReservationsSuggestions for Further Reading2: Politics and the Ideal City (Reading in the Republic: Books II-V)Plato Versus Hobbes on Justice and HappinessThe Construction and Rationale of the Ideal CityArt and CensorshipThe Living Conditions of the GuardiansUseful FalsehoodsForce in the City and SoulPlato Versus Hobbes on Substantive and Instrumental ReasonSuggestions for Further Reading3: Plato's Metaphysics (Reading in the Republic: Books VI-VII)Metaphysics, Ontology, and EpistemologyThe Divided Line as an Overview of Plato's MetaphysicsExplaining Plato's Metaphysics on its Own TermsThe Doctrine of the Forms--Realism Versus NominalismDialectic and the Form of GodProblems in Plato's Metaphysics Interpreted on its Own TermsInterpreting Plato's Metaphysics from Other Points of View--Acknowledging FinitudeSuggestions for Further Reading4: Plato's Metaphysics and Imperfect Justice (Reading in the Republic : Books VIII-X)The Types of Imperfect JusticeRanking the TypesProofs that Most Just Person is HappiestCritique of the ProofsThe Genesis of ImperfectionAccounts of Imperfection in Subsequent Philosophy and Political TheoryArt Versus Philosophy Revisited and the Myth of ErSuggestions for Furhter Reading5: Politics in the Face of Finitude (Reading in the Republic: Review of Book VIII)Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, and Tyranny RejectedDemocracy by DefaultAnother View--Interpreting Plato as a Proponent of DemocracyAppropriating Plato's Criticism of DemocracyDemocracy and PhilosophySuggestions for Further ReadingSelecting BibliographyIndex

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