Wages of War

Abstract

This essay argues that the Republic is, among other things, a meditation by Plato on the proximity of philosophy and war and on the dangers of that proximity for philosophy and politics. It is also Plato's reflection on the conduct, execution, and impact of a particular war, the panHellenic Peloponnesian War, in whose aftermath the dialogue was written and against whose backdrop it is set. Destabilizing settled rules of engagement and categories of identification, that war made especially urgent the practice of independent judgment and its virtues, whose inculcation, I show, amount to the education to philosophy that is the dialogue as a whole.

Blood Money

“…"By modeling interactions among political actors who do not resort to violence against the historical backdrop of an extremely violent war," Jill Frank claims, "the Republic depicts a different possible future while also arguing for the conditions necessary for such changes." 22 The cult of Bendis, according to Robert Parker, was notable for the level of interaction between citizens, metics, noncitizens, and foreigners. 23 The tension rippling through the opening scenes of the Republic reveals the text's concerns with political violence and the options available for dealing with conflicted poleis.…”

“…"Still, the threat of conflict, even of violence," Jill Frank points out about the opening of the Republic, "is never far from the surface." 24 The Republic, as Frank demonstrates, has a lot to say about the tensions between cities. The violence simmering throughout the book also concerns the problems of civil war and discord within the polis; a discord managed, as Plato evoked in the opening scenes of the Republic, through festivals.…”