Philosopher-Kings

"Philosopher-Kings broke new ground on its first appearance by delivering to an audience accustomed to looking for flaws in Plato's thinking an interpretation of the Republic that celebrates the coherence of Plato's argument as it ramifies through every cranny of that controversial work. Reeve's book swiftly became a classic of Platonic scholarship and has never lost its grip. Its reissue by Hackett is a very welcome event." --G.R.F. Ferrari, University of California, Berkeley


"Philosopher-Kings is a remarkable book, in the breadth of its scope as well as in the texture of its execution. It constitutes the most ambitious contemporary reading of the Republic, the most persistent, single-minded effort to give a unified reading of this immensely complex text. It is innovative in its attention not to a particular passage, argument, or theory on Plato's part, but to the whole of the Republic as a deeply coherent text, with no loose ends." --Alexander Nehamas, Princeton University