This book explores the life-history of the individual within the context of Plato’s social thought. The author examines Plato’s treatment of the principal crises in an individual life - birth, educational selection, sex, the individual’s contract with society, old age, death, and life after death – and provides an unprecedented analysis of Plato’s theory of genetics as it appears in the Timaeus. Comparisons are made with contemporary developments in anthropology, sociology, and comparative myth but without losing sight of the fact that Plato, whilst having much to say to the modern world, was not a modern.
1. The Theme of the Individual 2. Beginnings 3. A Hesitant Eugenic 4. Magic, Thinking and Selection by Merit 5. Man, Woman, and Eros 6. The Individual’s Contract 7. Old Age, Thanatos, and Last Things 8. Facing the Ideal Society. Citations of Plato’s Works. Index.
Biography
David Rankin
