Plato's 'Republic'

Mark L. McPherran is Professor of Philosophy at Simon Fraser University. He is the author of The Religion of Socrates (1996) and of numerous articles on ancient philosophy.

• Introduction Mark L. McPherran; 1. Socrates in the Republic G. R. F. Ferrari; 2. Platonic ring-composition and Republic X Rachel Barney; 3. The Atlantis story: the Republic and the Timaeus Julia Annas; 4. Ethics and politics in Socrates' defense of justice Rachana Kamtekar; 5. Plato's divided soul Christopher Shields; 6. The meaning of 'saphêneia' in Plato's divided line J. H. Lesher; 7. Plato's philosophical method in the Republic: the divided line (510b–511d) Hugh H. Benson; 8. Blindness and reorientation: education and the acquisition of knowledge in the Republic C. D. C. Reeve; 9. Music all pow'rful Malcolm Schofield; 10. Return to the cave Nicholas D. Smith; 11. Degenerate regimes in Plato's Republic Zena Hitz; 12. Virtue, luck, and choice at the end of the Republic Mark L. McPherran; Bibliography; Index of passages; Index of names and subjects.

'In the past few years, the Republic's readers have already been lucky enough to see two other fine anthologies dedicated to that dialogue … This new Critical Guide is much shorter than those, but it stands well in their company … This volume, a collection of papers that were mostly presented at a 2008 conference, is pitched to specialists slightly more than the other anthologies are … its selections are shorter, so even the difficult chapters feel more inviting than longer versions of them would have been. Freshness is at a premium … rich assortment … a wide spectrum of issues has been updated in this excellent book. Every philosopher who has thought about the Republic will find something here that illuminates an aspect of the dialogue; specialists will want to spend time with many of the twelve selections.' Nickolas Pappas, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews