A Wolf in the City: Tyranny and the Tyrant in Plato's Republic

by Cinzia Arruzza

Overview

The problem of tyranny preoccupied Plato, and its discussion both begins and ends his famous Republic. Though philosophers have mined the Republic for millennia, Cinzia Arruzza is the first to devote a full book to the study of tyranny and of the tyrant's soul in Plato's Republic. In A Wolf in the City, Arruzza argues that Plato's critique of tyranny intervenes in an ancient debate concerning the sources of the crisis of Athenian democracy and the relation between political leaders and demos in the last decades of the fifth century BCE. Arruzza shows that Plato's critique of tyranny should not be taken as veiled criticism of the Syracusan tyrannical regime, but rather of Athenian democracy. In parsing Plato's discussion of the soul of the tyrant, Arruzza will also offer new and innovative insights into his moral psychology, addressing much-debated problems such as the nature of eros and of the spirited part of the soul, the unity or disunity of the soul, and the relation between the non-rational parts of the soul and reason.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190678876
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/26/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	960 KB

About the Author

Cinzia Arruzza is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York. She works on ancient philosophy and Marxist and feminist theory. She is the author of Plotinus. Ennead II 5. On What is Potentially and What Actually (Parmenides, 2015); Dangerous Liaisons. Marriages and Divorces of Marxism and Feminism (Merlin Press, 2013); Les Mésaventures de la théodicée. Plotin, Origène et Grégoire de Nysse (Brepols Publishers, 2011).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Tyranny and Democracy Introduction Chapter 1: Tyranny in Athens: Aversion, Fascination, and Fear Chapter 2: Plato's Tyrant and the Crisis of Athenian Democracy Chapter 3: Tyrannical Democracy Part II: The Tyrant's Soul Introduction Chapter 4: The Tyranny of Eros and the Tyrannical Man's Appetites Chapter 5: The Lion and the Wolf: The Tyrant's Spirit Chapter 6: Clever Villains: The Tyrant's Reason Conclusion References General Index Index Locorum

Editorial Reviews

"Arruzza brings to light important differences between democracy and liberalism (p. 99). Freedom and popular rule do not always go together, and through the cracks of this relation the wolf may well appear. This is, to my view, a precious contribution Arruzza makes both to Platonic scholarship and to the understanding of our own time." — Carolina Araújo, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Études Platoniennes

"a fine and entirely commendable book on Plato's Republic. It provokes many questions and thoughts in interpreting Plato's political philosophy from a refreshingly new angle." — Jakub Jirsa, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"In sum, this is an excellent book. It feels genuinely original and fresh. Its main claims are based on meticulous analysis of the relevant texts. Relevant scholarly literature is closely engaged, and yet, thankfully, such engagement does not bog down the discussion. The writing is crisp and clear, and the argument moves briskly. The book can safely be recommended to anyone interested in Plato's Republic, his political philosophy, his moral psychology, or classical political thought more generally." — Mark A. Johnstone, Journal of the History of Philosophy

"In her analysis of the textual details of the Republic, Arruzza's work is masterful. She carefully handles everything from the historical minutiae of aristocratic clubs, to analyses of Plato's biological and animal metaphors." — Philosophical Quarterly

"Summing up: Recommended" — CHOICE

"[The book] is major contribution to scholarship. Its detailed analysis of the psychological condition of the tyrant is the fullest and best treatment we have of this subject. Its setting of Plato's portrait into its literary and political context is equally impressive and valuable. It is a book that should be read by every scholar and student of Plato's moral and political philosophy." — Richard Kraut, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"A masterly study of Plato's politics and psychology. Cinzia Arruzza's book teaches us an enormous amount about Athenian democracy and the representation of tyranny in Greek literature and history, while offering a new approach to the central concerns of Republic — one as philosophically fruitful as it is historically revealing." — Jessica Moss, Professor of Philosophy, New York University

"This is an excellent work of scholarship on a topic that has not been considered enough by itself, and that will be of interest to Plato specialists, political theorists, and general readers. It is one of the many merits of this book that it shows a way to think against Plato's convenient pairing of democracy with tyranny. There will be no reason for anyone to read a book like this one when either Plato is deemed irrelevant to our cultural discourse, or tyranny becomes an accepted fact of political life. Until those two grim events arrive, people will want to read this, which is written to scholarly standards but accessible to the educated reader." — Nickolas Pappas, Professor of Philosophy, The Graduate Center, CUNY

From the Publisher