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Plato’s Democratic Entanglements: Athenian Politics and the Practice of Philosophy. By S. Sara Monoson. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000. 252p. $39.50.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2005

Larry Arnhart
Affiliation:
Northern Illinois University,,

Abstract

Sara Monoson challenges the common view of Plato as a strong opponent of democracy. Although she acknowledges his severe criticisms of democracy, she argues that his re- sponse to Athenian democracy shows ambivalence rather than complete hostility. Not only does Plato offer some qualified endorsements of democratic politics, she contends, but also he presents the practice of the philosophic life as rooted in Athenian democratic culture. Karl Popper's cri- tique of Plato as a proto-totalitarian enemy of the "open society" is not as influential as it once was, but the assump- tion that Plato and Platonic philosophy are incompatible with democracy persists. Monoson wants to overturn that view and thus convince modern democratic readers that they may have something to learn from Plato.

Type
Book Review
Copyright
2001 by the American Political Science Association

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