Liberation and Authority provides original, comparative readings of Plato's Gorgias, the first book of the Republic, and Thucydides' History, arguing that they share similarities not only in the oft-noted "natural justice" of Callicles, Thrasymachus, and the Melian Dialogue, but also in a development that runs through the whole of each.

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
  • A Note to the Reader
  • Notes
• Thucydides: Introduction
  • Thucydides the Holist
  • Balancing Opposing Goods
  • Holism, Pericles, and His Successors
  • Immediacy in Thucydides
  • Three Stages
  • Justice and Power
  • The Speeches and Thucydides’ Thought
  • Notes
• (1) Periclean Athens
  • A Balance of Opposites
  • The City as Center
  • Pericles Undermined?
  • The Success of the Periclean Plan
  • Notes
• (2) Post-Periclean Athens
  • The Mytilenian Debate
  • Notes
• (3) Alcibiadean Athens
  • The Melian Dialogue
  • The Sicilian Debate
  • Athens as She Sets Sail for Sicily
  • Melos and the Sicilian Expedition
  • Notes
• Thucydides: Conclusion
  • Cause and Effect: The Shattering of the Periclean Unity and the Sicilian Expedition
  • Athens Moves toward the Immediate
  • From City to Individual: Toward the Immediate
  • The Power of Justice
  • Custom, Nature, and Liberation
  • Three Stages: Beginning, End, and Midpoint
  • Athens’ Development: An Old Objection
  • Statesmanship in Thucydides and the Nature of the Periclean Achievement
  • Notes
• Plato: A Holistic Approach to the Gorgias and Republic I
  • Notes
• The Gorgias: Introduction
  • The Structure of the Gorgias
  • Four Perspectives
  • Notes
• Shame and the Ad Hominem Arguments
  • Notes
• (1) Gorgias
  • Notes
• (2) Polus
  • Notes
• (3) Callicles
  • Opening Remarks (481b6–488b1)
  • Finding the Principle in Callicles (488b–494e)
  • Notes
• How Callicles Is Good: Platonic Doctrine in the Gorgias
  • Socrates’ Natural Justice
  • Pleasure, the Good and Ruling in the Gorgias
  • Summary
  • Notes
• Socrates in the Gorgias
  • Notes
• Republic I
  • Notes
• (1) Cephalus
  • Notes
• (2) Polemarchus
  • Notes
• (3) Thrasymachus
  • Thrasymachus Part One: Clarification
  • Thrasymachus Part Two: Refutation
  • Glimpses of the Good
  • The Political Aspect
  • How Thrasymachus Is Good
  • The Limits of Thrasymachus
  • Notes
• Republic I: Conclusion
  • The Argument of Book I
  • Proleptic Composition and the Cave in Republic I
  • Socrates in Republic I
  • Notes
• The Gorgias and the First Book of the Republic: Connections and Comparison
  • Justice Based in Nature
  • One Common Development
  • Two Different Perspectives
  • Why the Dialogue Form?
  • Notes
• Conclusion
  • Justice and Power in Plato and Thucydides
  • Plato and Thucydides Compared
  • A New Subjective Spirit
  • Liberation and Authority
  • Notes
• Works Cited
• Index
• About the Author