Plato's Fable: On the Mortal Condition in Shadowy Times

by Joshua Mitchell

This book is an exploration of Plato's Republic that bypasses arcane scholarly debates. Plato's Fable provides refreshing insight into what, in Plato's view, is the central problem of life: the mortal propensity to adopt defective ways of answering the question of how to live well.

How, in light of these tendencies, can humankind be saved? Joshua Mitchell discusses the question in unprecedented depth by examining one of the great books of Western civilization.

He draws us beyond the ancients/moderns debate, and beyond the notion that Plato's Republic is best understood as shedding light on the promise of discursive democracy. Instead, Mitchell argues, the question that ought to preoccupy us today is neither reason nor discourse, but rather imitation. To what extent is man first and foremost an imitative being? This, Mitchell asserts, is the subtext of the great political and foreign policy debates of our times.


Plato's Fable is not simply a work of textual exegesis. It is an attempt to move debates within political theory beyond their current location. Mitchell recovers insights about the depth of the problem of mortal imitation from Plato's magnificent work, and seeks to explicate the meaning of Plato's central claim--that only philosophy can save us.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2006

About the author

Joshua Mitchell is a professor of Government at Georgetown University and a “1776 Unites” partner.