Socrates' Discursive Democracy

Socrates' Discursive Democracy PDF Author: Gerald M. Mara
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438411871
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Focusing on the speeches and actions of the Platonic Socrates, this book argues that Plato's political philosophy is a crucial source for reflection on the hazards and possibilities of democratic politics.

Socrates' Discursive Democracy

Socrates' Discursive Democracy PDF Author: Gerald M. Mara
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438411871
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Focusing on the speeches and actions of the Platonic Socrates, this book argues that Plato's political philosophy is a crucial source for reflection on the hazards and possibilities of democratic politics.

The Socratic Citizen

The Socratic Citizen PDF Author: Adolf G. Gundersen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Deliberative democracy
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Socrates, the father of political philosophy, was put to death in 399 BC by the world's first democracy. Ever since, defenders of democracy have attempted to show that the central tension symbolized by that event -- between philosophical truth, embodied by Socrates, and democratic whim -- could be contained. In The Socratic Citizen, Adolf G. Gundersen addresses this tension in a new way, by recasting Socrates as a model for the democratic citizen. Gundersen asserts that political deliberation is best thought of as a two-person affair, or a dyad. He proposes this dyadic theory as an intriguing alternative to the present American system, where interest groups define the debate and the average citizen is reduced to simply agreeing or disagreeing with these manufactured positions. A powerful reclamation of everyday conversation as an integral form of political discourse, The Socratic Citizen is an original contribution to political philosophy.

The Civic Conversations of Thucydides and Plato

The Civic Conversations of Thucydides and Plato PDF Author: Gerald M. Mara
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791477991
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
This book argues that classical political philosophy, represented in the works of Thucydides and Plato, is an important resource for both contemporary democratic political theory and democratic citizens. By placing the Platonic dialogues and Thucydides' History in conversation with four significant forms of modern democratic theory—the rational choice perspective, deliberative democratic theory, the interpretation of democratic culture, and postmodernism—Gerald M. Mara contends that these classical authors are not enemies of democracy. Rather than arguing for the creation of a more encompassing theoretical framework guided by classical concerns, Mara offers readings that emphasize the need to focus critically on the purposes of politics, and therefore of democracy, as controversial yet unavoidable questions for political theory.

The Rhetoric of Plato's Republic

The Rhetoric of Plato's Republic PDF Author: James L. Kastely
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022627862X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
J. Kastely makes the case for Plato’s Republic as a self-consciously rhetorical work exploring a fundamental problem for philosophy. He argues that the Republic is a mimetic poem responding to a discursive crisis within democracy, namely, the absence of a genuinely persuasive defense of justice. Understanding the Republic as a work that raises persuasion as a key problem for philosophy requires us to rethink Plato’s understanding of the relationship between philosophy and rhetoric. This is a major and provocative reconsideration of the relationship of philosophy and rhetoric and raises issues central to a wide range of scholarly fields, from political theory to psychology to aesthetics.

What Would Socrates Do?

What Would Socrates Do? PDF Author: Joel Alden Schlosser
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107067421
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
"Socrates continues to be an extremely influential force to this day; his work is featured prominently in the work of contemporary thinkers ranging from Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss, to Michel Foucault and Jacques Ranciáere. Intervening in this discussion, What Would Socrates Do? reconstructs Socrates' philosophy in ancient Athens to show its promise of empowering citizens and non-citizens alike. By drawing them into collective practices of dialogue and reflection, philosophy can help people to become thinking, acting beings more capable of fully realizing the promises of political life. At the same time, however, Joel Alden Schlosser shows how these practices' commitment to interrogation keeps philosophy at a distance from the democratic status quo, creating a dissonance with conventional forms of politics that opens space for new forms of participation and critical contestation of extant ones"--

Plato on Democracy and Political technē

Plato on Democracy and Political technē PDF Author: Anders Sorensen
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004326197
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
In Plato on Democracy and Political technē Anders Dahl Sørensen offers an in-depth investigation of Plato’s discussions of democracy’s ‘epistemic potential’, arguing that this question is far more central to his political thought than is usually assumed.

Athens Victorious

Athens Victorious PDF Author: Greg Recco
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 0739123270
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Plato's Republic is typically thought to recommend a form of government that, from our current perspective, seems perniciously totalitarian. Athens Victorious demonstrates that Plato intended quite the opposite: to demonstrate the superiorityof a democratic constitution. Greg Recco provides a brilliant rereading of Book Eight. Often considered an anticlimax, Book Eight seems to be a mere catalogue of mistakes but is in fact one of Plato's most neglected literary creations: a mythic or epic restaging of the Peloponnesian War that pitted Sparta's militaristic oligarchy against Athens' democracy. In Plato's reenactment, Athens wins. Recco argues that the values identified in Book Eight as distinctively democratic were the very ones that served as the unannounced touchstones of moral and political judgment throughout the dialogue.Athens Victorious is an important reinterpretation ofThe Republic. It is an excellent resource for students and scholars of Classical Studies, Philosophy, and Political Theory.

The Platonic Political Art

The Platonic Political Art PDF Author: John R. Wallach
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271031026
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
In this first comprehensive treatment of Plato’s political thought in a long time, John Wallach offers a "critical historicist" interpretation of Plato. Wallach shows how Plato’s theory, while a radical critique of the conventional ethical and political practice of his own era, can be seen as having the potential for contributing to democratic discourse about ethics and politics today. The author argues that Plato articulates and "solves" his Socratic Problem in his various dialogues in different but potentially complementary ways. The book effectively extracts Plato from the straightjacket of Platonism and from the interpretive perspectives of the past fifty years—principally those of Karl Popper, Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, M. I. Finley, Jacques Derrida, and Gregory Vlastos. The author’s distinctive approach for understanding Plato—and, he argues, for the history of political theory in general—can inform contemporary theorizing about democracy, opening pathways for criticizing democracy on behalf of virtue, justice, and democracy itself.

Deliberative Democracy

Deliberative Democracy PDF Author: Jon Elster
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521596961
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
This volume assesses the strengths and weaknesses of deliberative democracy.

The Perpetual Immigrant and the Limits of Athenian Democracy

The Perpetual Immigrant and the Limits of Athenian Democracy PDF Author: Demetra Kasimis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107052432
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Argues that immigration politics is a central - but overlooked - object of inquiry in the democratic thought of classical Athens. Thinkers criticized democracy's strategic investments in nativism, the shifting boundaries of citizenship, and the precarious membership that a blood-based order effects for those eligible and ineligible to claim it.