Plato's Fable

On the Mortal Condition in Shadowy Times

By: Joshua Mitchell

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Hardcover | 6 June 2006

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Hardcover
224 Pages

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23.4 x 15.2 x 235

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This book is an exploration of Plato's Republic that bypasses arcane scholarly debates. Plato's Fable provides refreshing insight into what, in Plato's view, is the central problem of life: the mortal propensity to adopt defective ways of answering the question of how to live well.

How, in light of these tendencies, can humankind be saved? Joshua Mitchell discusses the question in unprecedented depth by examining one of the great books of Western civilization.

He draws us beyond the ancients/moderns debate, and beyond the notion that Plato's Republic is best understood as shedding light on the promise of discursive democracy. Instead, Mitchell argues, the question that ought to preoccupy us today is neither "reason" nor "discourse," but rather "imitation." To what extent is man first and foremost an "imitative" being? This, Mitchell asserts, is the subtext of the great political and foreign policy debates of our times.

Plato's Fable is not simply a work of textual exegesis. It is an attempt to move debates within political theory beyond their current location. Mitchell recovers insights about the depth of the problem of mortal imitation from Plato's magnificent work, and seeks to explicate the meaning of Plato's central claim--that "only philosophy can save us."

Industry Reviews

"Plato's Fable is ... a well researched and eloquently expressed work of scholarship, and as such would be a valuable tool for any student of ancient philosophy in particular along with moral, metaphysical and political philosophy in general."--Kenneth Royce Moore, The Philosophical Quarterly

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Preface	p. ix
A Note on the Translation	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Imitation in Mortal Life	p. 1
The Disappointments of Reason	p. 3
Hegel and the Origins of "Identity Politics"	p. 5
Rousseau's Gentler Form of Imitation	p. 7
Beyond the Reformation Categories of "Identity Politics" and Socialization	p. 11
Reason Revisited: Plato's Critique of "Rationality"	p. 12
Honor's Place	p. 14
(Divine) Reason	p. 16
The Mortal Condition in Shadowy Times	p. 18
Plato's Fable	p. 21
Rendering Each Its Due	p. 22
The Origin of the City	p. 27
Fables, Lies, and Medicine	p. 34
Fool's Gold	p. 47
Noble Education-and Beyond	p. 51
From the City to the Soul	p. 56
The Philosopher	p. 59
The Hunt for the Good	p. 68
The Decline toward Tyranny	p. 75
Timocracy	p. 79
Oligarchy	p. 82
Democracy	p. 89
Tyranny	p. 99
The Prisoner's Dilemma	p. 111
Envy	p. 113
Sadomasochism	p. 114
Rights and the Relativity of All Things	p. 115
Averting Ruptures	p. 119
The Pathos of Measurement, and Power	p. 122
Trivia	p. 126
Medical Crises, Legal Gridlock	p. 133
Ethics as First Science	p. 137
Beyond Debt	p. 139
The Misplaced Search for Origins	p. 146
The Opinings of the Divided Soul	p. 152
The Inaction of the Divided Soul	p. 156
Conclusion	p. 167
The Fable of Liberalism	p. 167
The Tocquevillean Wager: Mimesis and the Mediational Site of Renewal	p. 175
The Socratic Wager: Mimesis and the Philosophical Practice of Death	p. 189
Bibliography	p. 195
Index	p. 203
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Plato's Fable

On the Mortal Condition in Shadowy Times

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

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