A01=S. Sara Monoson
Aeschylus
Allan Bloom
Allusion
Aristotle
Athenian Democracy
Author_S. Sara Monoson
Callicles
Cambridge University Press
Category=JPHV
Category=QDHA
Classical Athens
Constitution of the Athenians
Critias
Critias (dialogue)
Criticism
Criticism of democracy
Critique
Deliberation
Democracy
Democratic ideals
Demosthenes
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Explanation
Fifth-century Athens
Funeral oration (ancient Greece)
Glaucon
Gorgias
Greek tragedy
Harmodius and Aristogeiton
Harmodius and Aristogeiton (sculpture)
Herodotus
Ideology
Imagery
Institution
Isonomia
Josiah Ober
Literature
Martha Nussbaum
Menexenus (dialogue)
Metaphor
Metic
Oligarchy
Parrhesia
Pederasty in ancient Greece
Pericles
Pericles' Funeral Oration
Philosopher
Philosophy
Pierre Vidal-Naquet
Plato
Platonic Academy
Political dissent
Political philosophy
Politics
Princeton University Press
Reason
Republic (Plato)
Rhetoric
Self-image
Sheldon Wolin
Socratic
Socratic dialogue
Suggestion
The Erotic
The Philosopher
Themistocles
Theory
Thought
Thucydides
Tragedy
Tyrant
Wealth
Writing
Yale University Press
Product details
- ISBN 9780691043661
- Weight: 510g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 28 May 2000
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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In this book, Sara Monoson challenges the longstanding and widely held view that Plato is a virulent opponent of all things democratic. She does not, however, offer in its place the equally mistaken idea that he is somehow a partisan of democracy. Instead, she argues that we should attend more closely to Plato's suggestion that democracy is horrifying and exciting, and she seeks to explain why he found it morally and politically intriguing. Monoson focuses on Plato's engagement with democracy as he knew it: a cluster of cultural practices that reach into private and public life, as well as a set of governing institutions. She proposes that while Plato charts tensions between the claims of democratic legitimacy and philosophical truth, he also exhibits a striking attraction to four practices central to Athenian democratic politics: intense antityrantism, frank speaking, public funeral oratory, and theater-going. By juxtaposing detailed examination of these aspects of Athenian democracy with analysis of the figurative language, dramatic structure, and arguments of the dialogues, she shows that Plato systematically links democratic ideals and activities to philosophic labor.
Monoson finds that Plato's political thought exposes intimate connections between Athenian democratic politics and the practice of philosophy. Situating Plato's political thought in the context of the Athenian democratic imaginary, Monoson develops a new, textured way of thinking of the relationship between Plato's thought and the politics of his city.
S. Sara Monoson is Associate Professor of Political Science and Classics at Northwestern University.
