Plato"s Fable (ebook)

Argumento de Plato"s Fable (ebook)

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."0Preface ix
A Note on the Translation xv

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1
Imitation in Mortal Life 1
The Disappointments of Reason 3
Hegel and the Origins of "Identity Politics" 5
Rousseau's Gentler Form of Imitation 7
Beyond the Reformation Categories of "Identity Politics" and Socialization 11
Reason Revisited: Plato's Critique of "Rationality" 12
Honor's Place 14
(Divine) Reason 16
The Mortal Condition in Shadowy Times 18

Chapter 2: PLATO'S FABLE 21
Rendering Each Its Due 22
The Origin of the City 27
Fables, Lies, and Medicine 34
Fool's Gold 47
Noble Education--and Beyond 51
From the City to the Soul 56
The Philosopher 59
The Hunt for the Good 68
The Decline toward Tyranny 75
Timocracy 79
Oligarchy 82
Democracy 89
Tyranny 99
The Prisoner's Dilemma 111
Envy 113
Sadomasochism 114
Rights and the Relativity of All Things 115
Averting Ruptures 119
The Pathos of Measurement, and Power 122
Trivia 126
Medical Crises, Legal Gridlock 133
Ethics as First Science 137
Beyond Debt 139
The Misplaced Search for Origins 146
The Opinings of the Divided Soul 152
The Inaction of the Divided Soul 156

Chapter 3: CONCLUSION 167
The Fable of Liberalism 167
The Tocquevillean Wager: Mimesis and the Mediational Site of Renewal 175
The Socratic Wager: Mimesis and the Philosophical Practice of Death 189

Bibliography 195
Index 203