Plato is the best known and most widely studied of all the ancient Greek philosophers. Malcolm Schofield, a leading scholar of ancient philosophy, offers a lucid and accessible guide to Plato's political thought, enormously influential and much discussed in the modern world as well as the ancient. Schofield discusses Plato's ideas on education, democracy and its shortcomings, the role of knowledge in government, utopia and the idea of community, money and its grip on the psyche, and ideological uses of religion.

• Introduction


• 1: The Republic: contexts and projects


• 2: Athens, democracy, and freedom


• 3: Problematizing democracy


• 4: The rule of knowledge


• 5: Utopia


• 6: Money and the soul


• 7: Ideology


• Conclusion