Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

vii

Introduction

xiii

1. Fathers and Sons

1

2. Taming the Beast: Socrates versus Thrasymachus

25

3. A Fresh Start

55

4. Blueprints for a Platonic Utopia: Education and Culture

75

5. Starting to Answer the First Question: The Political Virtues

93

6. The Republic’s First Question Answered at Last: Personal Justice

113

7. Questions about the Idea Polis: The Three Waves

131

8. Surfing the Third Wave: Plato’s Metaphysical Elevator, the Powers Argument, and the Infallibility of Knowledge

151

9. The Philosopher’s Virtues

175

10. Metaphors to Think by: The Sun and Divided Line Analogies

191

11. The Allegory of the Cave

211

12. The Decline and Fall of the Ideal City-Soul

229

13. The Republic’s Second Question Answered: Three and a Half Arguments that the Just Life is Happier

251

14. Are We There Yet? Tying up Loose Ends in Book X

275

Afterword

299

List of Illustrations

305

Bibliography

309

Index

313

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