Gender and Rhetoric in Plato's Political Thought [Hardcover]

This book explores Plato's Republic and Laws, the unity of the virtues, women's role, and the family.Gender and Rhetoric in Plato's Political Thought explores the relation between Plato's Republic and Laws on the set of issues that the Laws itself marks out as fundamental to the comparison: the unity of the virtues, the role of women, and the place of the family. Plato aims to persuade men to abandon the views of the good life that Greek cities and their laws inculcate as the only life worth living for those who would be real men and not effeminate weaklings.Gender and Rhetoric in Plato's Political Thought explores the relation between Plato's Republic and Laws on the set of issues that the Laws itself marks out as fundamental to the comparison: the unity of the virtues, the role of women, and the place of the family. Plato aims to persuade men to abandon the views of the good life that Greek cities and their laws inculcate as the only life worth living for those who would be real men and not effeminate weaklings.This study explores the relation between Plato's Republic and Laws on the set of issues that the Laws marks out as fundamental to the comparison--the unity of the virtues, the role of women, and the place of the family. Plato aims to persuade men to abandon the views of the good life that Greek cities and their laws inculcate as the only life worth living for those who would be real men and not effeminate weaklings.1. Gender and the virtues; 2. Plato's psychopolitical justifications; 3. Manliness and tyranny; 4. Justice and the ungendered self; 5. The rule of law and the goodness of the city; 6. Patriarchy and philosophy; Conclusion: from Plato back to politics. [Kochin's] book is must-reading for anyone interested in Plato's political thought and themes of gender in political thought. Review of Politics Particularly noteworthy is the manner in which Kochin powerfully raises the question of the relation between justice and happiness. The Standard Rl7