Ruling Bodies (eBook)

A Study of Coercion and Punishment in Plato's Republic, Laws, and Gorgias

Robin Varma (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2022
1 Seiten
Bloomsbury Publishing (USA) (Verlag)
978-1-9787-7288-5 (ISBN)

Infos

This book is about an epochal shift in ideas that changed the nature and meaning of coercion in modern political thought. It begins with a review of Foucault, Arendt, and Habermas, and points out a discrepancy in the way each thinker understood coercion in modern politics. From here, Varma examines Plato's Republic, Laws, and Gorgias to provide a framework and context for thinking about this. As the author shows, each work demonstrates a particular style of Platonic statecraft that corresponds to the amount of power the philosopher holds in a city. The Republic demonstrates the philosopher's rule as a monarch; the Laws demonstrates his rule when he must share power with a few spirited statesmen; and the Gorgias demonstrates his rule in a democracy where power belongs to the people. Ultimately, Varma argues that the philosopher used coercion as a supplementary tool to help harmonize man's soul with the heavens. When Hobbes recast the cosmos as matter in motion, however, power became the highest ordering principle for political life.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 23.5.2022
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• ISBN-10: 1-9787-7288-2 / 1978772882
• ISBN-13: 978-1-9787-7288-5 / 9781978772885