Masters and Slaves: Revisioned Essays in Political Philosophy / Edition 1

by Michael Palmer PhD

Overview

This collection of essays sheds light on the writings of leading figures in the history of political philosophy by exploring a nexus of questions concerning mastery and slavery in the human soul. To this end, Masters and Slaves elucidates archetypal human alternatives in their import for political life: the philosopher and king; the lover of wisdom and the lover of glory; the king and the tyrant; and finally, the master and the slave. Palmer re-examines these ideas as a framework for achieving a deeper understanding of the work of famous thinkers—from the ancient to modern times—including Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau. As well, the book addresses distinctions between the 'ancients' and the 'moderns,' and touches on the work of contemporary theorists such as Leo Strauss, George Parkin Grant, and Allan Bloom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739102770
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	06/13/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.76(w) x 9.04(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

Michael Palmer is Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine. He is the author of Love of Glory and the Common Good: Aspects of the Political Thought of Thucydides (1992), and coeditor of Political Philosophy and the Human Soul: Essays in Memory of Allan Bloom (with Thomas L. Pangle).

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Mastering Slaves or Mastering Science?: An Aristotelian Reprise Chapter 2 Kings, Philosophers, and Tyrants in Plato's Republic Chapter 3 Alcibiades and the Question of Tyranny in Thucydides Chapter 4 Thucydides on Ambition to Rule Chapter 5 Machiavellian virtù and Thucydidean arete: Moderation and the Common Good Chapter 6 Machiavelli's Inhuman Humanism in The Prince Chapter 7 The Master Fool: The Conspiracy of Machiavelli's Mandragola Chapter 8 Hobbesian and Thucydidean Realism Chapter 9 The Citizen Philosopher: Rousseau's Dedicatory Letter to the Discourse on Inequality Chapter 10 On Leo Strauss's Jerusalem and Athens Chapter 11 On George Grant's English-Speaking Justice Chapter 12 On Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind

Editorial Reviews

This edition of Michael Palmer's essays is a very welcome publishing event. Ranging from the political thought of the ancients to that of the moderns, Palmer's touch is sure. All serious political theorists will want this book on their shelf.

Jean M. Yarbrough

The incisive little summary diagnosis of The Prince, by itself, apart from the other gems, makes Palmer's a book to have.

Robert Faulkner

Ranging with graceful erudition and lively intelligence over major figures in the history of political thought from Aristotle to the present, this is a collection of illuminating interpretive studies that will richly reward both students and scholars.

Thomas L. Pangle

Building upon and branching out from his searching and insightful work on Thucydides, Michael Palmer here offers a series of wide-ranging essays on ancient and modern philosophy. The highlight of the book is a set of essays on Machiavelli, including a penetrating analysis of Mandragola that freshly illuminates the Italian philosopher's achievement as a dramatist.

Paul Cantor

Michael Palmer is one of the most successful teachers of political philosophy in North America today. This collection of his essays shows why. Palmer ranges over the entire history of political thought, combining careful scholarship with trenchant analysis, shedding clear new light on perennial texts and perennial problems.

Clifford Orwin