Method and Politics in Plato's Statesman

This book is a philosophical analysis of Plato's dialogue, the Statesman. Dr Lane finds that rather than being transitional between the Republic and the Laws, the Statesman deserves a special place of its own - the dialogue emerging as a text which proposes an alternative conception of knowledge, authority, and the relationship between them.

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Among Plato's works, the Statesman is usually seen as transitional between the Republic and the Laws. This book argues that the dialogue deserves a special place of its own. Whereas Plato is usually thought of as defending unchanging knowledge, Dr Lane demonstrates how, by placing change at the heart of political affairs, Plato reconceives the link between knowledge and authority. The statesman is shown to master the timing of affairs of state, and to use this expertise in managing the conflict of opposed civic factions. To this political argument corresponds a methodological approach which is seen to rely not only on the familiar method of 'division', but equally on the unfamiliar centrality of the use of 'example'. The demonstration that method and politics are interrelated transforms our understanding of the Statesman and its fellow dialogues.