Ruling Passion: The Erotics of Statecraft in Platonic Political Philosophy

Ruling Passion is the only book-length study of tyranny, statesmanship, and civic virtue in three major Platonic dialogues, the Georgias, the Symposium, and the Republic. It is also the first extended interpretation of eros as the key to Plato's understanding of both the depths of human vice and the heights of human aspirations for virtue and happiness. Through his detailed commentary and eloquent insights on the three dialogues, Waller Newell demonstrates how, for Plato, tyranny is a misguided longing for erotic satisfaction that can be corrected by the education of eros toward the proper objects if its pleasure: civic virtue and philosophy. In unfolding these reflections through his analysis, Newell also demonstrates a rich and deep grasp of the complexities of the tyrannical personality and countless new insights into the dramatic dimensions of Plato's dialogues. Written in a clear and engaging style, Ruling Passion will be of interest to philosophers, political theorists, classicists, historians, and anyone generally intrigued by the ironies, mysteries, and longings of human nature and psychology.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 Introduction: A Platonic Perspective on Eros, Tyranny, and Statesmanship Chapter 2 The Problem of Callicles: Two Kinds of Eros Chapter 3 The Ontology of Primordialism and the Platonic Critique of the Sophists Chapter 4 The Erotics of Statecraft Chapter 5 The Education of the Civic-Spirited Chapter 6 Virtue, Eros, and Trancendence Chapter 7 Conclusion: Socratic Statesmanship

About the Author :
Waller Newell is professor of political science at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Review :
Newell's book provides distinctively insightful readings of the dialogues under consideration. His book abounds with astute political, philosophical, and especially psychological observations. A penetrating study in Platonic political philosophy and a sharply stimulating interpretation of major Platonic dialogues. Ruling Passion is a masterful reading of Plato, and it is also the most complex and nuanced analysis in our day of political ambition and the theoretical challenges it raises. Through the character of Callicles in the Gorgias Newell captures both the idealism and the selfishness intertwined in political ambition. Their deep connection, he shows, sheds a harsh but revealing light on both eros in the Symposium and the tripartite soul in the Republic. This portrayal of "the problem of Callicles" deserves to haunt all thinking on these topics for the next decade or so. Novices and experts alike can learn much from Newell's original and deeply insightful analysis. As Socrates dons the lovely disguise of Diotima or parades the beautiful Images of Philosophy before his interlocutors to appeal to their desire for wholeness, so does Newell's masterly account of a philosophically guided statemanship appeal to our desire to know what such a way of life might truly entail. We have here one of the best books on Plato to have appeared in recent years. Newell has written an excellent interpretive study. Newell's lucid prose is an intellectual delight to read. His own insightful phrases and rich vocabulary bear witness to the dramatic nuances of the dialugues at every stage. Newell has a clear sense of his questions and his structure. Newell's interpretations of the well-known text are clearly spelled out and thought-provoking. What stand out in Newell's pages are fresh readings of the dialogues. One should be greatful for a book that pushes us to the limits of Plato's texts. Newell's emphasis on the connections between the three dialogues and his deep excavation of the meaning and control of primordial and transcendental longing will reward the careful and patient reader.