Plato: A Civic Life

(Hardback)

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Plato is a key figure from the beginnings of Western philosophy, yet the impact of his lived experience on his thought has rarely been explored. Plato lived in turbulent times, born during a war that led to Athens' defeat and decline. A restored democracy enabled the execution of his teacher Socrates. Carol Atack explores how his life in Athens influenced Plato's thinking, how he developed the Socratic dialogue into a powerful philosophical tool, and how he used the institutions of Athenian society to create a compelling imaginative world. Accessibly written, this book shows how Plato made Athens the place where diverse ideas were integrated into a new way of approaching big questions about existence and the societies we create, then and now.

Author Bio

Carol Atack is a Fellow of Newnham College, University of Cambridge, where she teaches classical Greek and ancient philosophy. She is the author of The Discourse of Kingship in Classical Greece (2019) and Anachronism and Antiquity (with Tim Rood and Tom Phillips, 2020).