Plato and the Tyrant by James Romm instant download

Plato and the Tyrant by James Romm instant download

From an eminent historian and classicist, an incisive portrait of the philosopher Plato, showing how the ideas in his masterwork, Republic, were tested by violent events in the most powerful Greek city of the era.

Plato is one of history's most influential thinkers, the "sublime philosopher" whose writings remain foundational to Western culture. He is known for the brilliant dialogues in which he depicted his teacher, Socrates, discussing ethical truths with prominent citizens of Athens. Yet the image we have of Plato—an ethereal figure far removed from society and politics, who conjured abstract ideas in peaceful groves—is a fiction, created by Plato's admirers and built up over centuries. In fact, Plato was very much a man of the world.

In Plato and the Tyrant, acclaimed historian and classicist James Romm draws on personal letters of Plato—documents that have long been kept in obscurity—to show how a philosopher helped...