PHIL 604 Plato: Statesman
This course offers a detailed examination and interpretation of Plato's Statesman. Special emphasis will be placed on elucidating the political model advanced in this text, the dialectical use of myth, and the relation between philosophy and statesmanship. Our exploration of these themes will involve consideration of some of the most intriguing and fascinating aspects of Plato's late metaphysics and epistemology: the dialectical method of collection and division, the communion of forms, the doctrine of due measure or the mean, etc. A holistic approach, integrating ethical, epistemological and metaphysical threads, will guide our discussion all the way.