Term
Spring 2019
Faculty
Melissa Lane
Registrar description

We will conduct a close reading of Plato's Republic Books 8 and 9, together with scholarship on these books, the dialogue, and related topics. These books treat the decline of the ideal constitution into a sequence of four other constitutions - timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny - each with a corresponding individual figure. They include discussions of historical change as shaped by factors including the role of political office, and the relationship between psychological and political formations. While the Greek text may be referenced in discussion, knowledge of classical Greek is not required for enrolment.