Epistemic Life in the Polis: Ancient Insights into Contemporary Issues

This book shows the interesting connections within political epistemology that can be established between ancient approaches and contemporary ones. It stems from the conviction that ancient thought can be brought into discussion with contemporary views. Although the book is not intended as an exegetical work, the authors offer detailed interpretations of ancient philosophers while taking into consideration recent specialized discussions in the scholarship with a focus mainly on the systematic aspects of those philosophers rather than on the historical ones. By exploiting insights of Ancient Greek philosophers, and providing an examination of certain intellectual attitudes and virtues that have both an ethical-political and epistemic dimension, the reader will better understand contemporary issues within political epistemology.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. General Introduction.- Chapter 2. Self-Knowledge and the Limits of the First-Person and the Third-Person Perspectives.- Chapter 3. The Ancient Sceptic Attitude and Disagreement.- Chapter 4. Socratic Ignorance, Intellectual Humility and Intellectual Autonomy.- Chapter 5.Authority and Plato’s Epistocracy.- Chapter 6. Democracy and Citizenry Competence.- Bibliography.- Index.

About the Author :
Marcelo D. Boeri is a Full Professor at the Institute of Philosophy at the Pontifical Catholic University in Chile. He has previously served as an Independent Researcher for the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research in Argentina, a Junior Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies at Harvard University, and a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in the USA. Additionally, he has been a member of the Editorial Board of Platonic Studies (International Plato Society). His primary areas of interest include epistemology, metaphysics, moral psychology, and political philosophy, with a focus on the works of Plato, Aristotle, Stoicism, and Epicureanism. He has recently published ¿Serías capaz de habar si nadie te respondiera? Filosofía y drama en Platón, Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2023, Theory and Practice in Epicurean Political Philosophy: Security, Justice and Tranquility, London: Bloomsbury, 2023 (coauthored with Javier Aoiz), Aristóteles, Ética Nicomaquea (Traducción, introducción y notas), Zaragoza: Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza, 2024 (coauthored with Gabriela Rossi).   Leandro De Brasi received his PhD from King’s College London, UK, and is an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Science of the University of La Frontera, Chile. He is the Director of the Center for Philosophical Research, UFRO, and a member of the Fondecyt Philosophy Group, National Research and Development Agency (Chile). His research focuses primarily on contemporary epistemology, including its social, political and legal branches, and normative theory of democracy. He has published extensively on these and other issues and has been the principal investigator or co-investigator of various disciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects. Currently he is working on diverse epistemic dysfunctions of the political and judicial domains and the possible ameliorative measures to counteract them.