Cooperative Flourishing in Plato's 'Republic': A Theory of Justice (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781350257030)

In this pathbreaking interpretation of Plato's foundational text of political philosophy, Carolina Ara仼o reveals how the Republic remains ripe for an interpretation grounded in notions of cooperation, flourishing and justice relevant to the diversity of contemporary life.

Plato's Republic has the Greek name of Politeia that Ara仼o translates as "the way of life of the citizens," not "the State" or "the form of government" as it more traditionally rendered. Plato's treatise, Politeia, depicts the rich array of patterns emerging from human interaction and enquires into the best amongst them. Cooperative Flourishing in Plato's Republic returns to these important questions about society - how to live with a vast diversity of personalities, with different interests and abilities, all of them trying to flourish - and asks how best can we share our environment? With rigorous philosophical analysis of the Greek text, accompanied by original translations of the most important passages, Ara仼o upends mainstream scholarship to progress Socrates' "bottom-up" view of politics and rejects previous readings of the Republic as a proto-totalitarian text, psychological study or lengthy analogy.

By defending a theory of Platonic justice that is rooted in cooperative flourishing, the public education of all citizens and the contribution of philosophers to political life, "the beautiful city", which Plato called Kallipolis, emerges as a hopeful possibility.

Author: Carolina Ara仼o
ISBN-10: 1350257036
ISBN-13: 9781350257030
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Language: English
Published: 12/29/2022
Pages: 264
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.37lbs
Size: 9.61h x 6.69w x 0.63d