Event Location
201 Philosophy Hall, UC Berkeley
Event Date
This lecture reconstructs Plato's critique of the democratic concept of freedom in Books 8 and 9 of the Republic and argues that this critique is more context-sensitive, complex, and constructive than is generally assumed in current scholarship. The lecture argues that, in his analysis of democracy, Plato sheds light on the psychological, institutional, and conceptual dimensions of populism and its connection to tyranny—dimensions that could also be relevant to understanding the problems facing democracies today.