A Series of Footnotes to Plato's Philosophers

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10437240
AutoresKevin M Cherry (0000-0003-1753-5717, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen80
Número2
Páginas257-269
Fecha de publicación2018-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Review of Politics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0034670517001267
OpenAlexW2800067285
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas12

In her magisterial Plato's Philosophers , Catherine Zuckert presents a radically new interpretation of Plato's dialogues. In doing so, she insists we must overcome reading them through the lens of Aristotle, whose influence has obscured the true nature of Plato's philosophy. However, in her works dealing with Aristotle's political science, Zuckert indicates several advantages of his approach to understanding politics. In this article, I explore the reasons why Zuckert finds Aristotle a problematic guide to Plato's philosophy as well as what she sees as the character and benefits of Aristotle's political theory. I conclude by suggesting a possible reconciliation between Zuckert's Aristotle and her Plato, insofar as both the Socrates whom Plato made his hero and Aristotle agree that political communities will rarely direct citizens toward virtue by means of law and that we must instead look to informal means of doing so

Ancient philosophy · Character (mathematics · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Literature · Platonic idealism · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Reading (process · SOCRATES · Virtue · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Law · Philosophy · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought