Description: Argues that Plato's dialogues contain a surprisingly neglected account of Socrates' education about the love of noble virtue and that recovering this education could help broaden and deepen liberalism's moral and political horizon.
Brief description: Mark J. Lutz is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Notre Dame.
Review Quotes:
"I know of no other work that so fully brings to life the debate between Plato and Nietzsche, especially from the side of Nietzsche. The arguments against Socrates or Plato one finds in Rorty and Nussbaum are shown to be profoundly wanting by this book. It will do an enormous amount to shake the prevailing scholarly view that Plato and the Western tradition in general is dead. Consequently, its topic is deeply significant not only to political science and philosophy but also to scholars in comparative literature, English, law, and, of course, classics--and most notably to a wider audience of intellectuals. For anyone interested in reinvigorating liberalism, this is indispensable." -- Joshua Parens, University of Dallas
"Socrates' Education to Virtue is extremely well-written. Lutz does Plato scholarship a great service by reintroducing Alcibiades I as an important part of our picture of Socrates." -- Catherine Zuckert, Carleton College
"The main significance of this work lies in its timely contribution to the current debates concerning higher education. Theorists of education debate many of the issues that this text addresses without benefit of a sound understanding of the Socratic method and of how it could be expected to yield politically responsible individuals. Lutz's book addresses this lacuna in terms which are accessible without compromising fidelity to the classical texts. Accordingly, it could forge for itself a solid place among the voluminous publications on related topics such as values education in public schools, the traditional canon of texts, political correctness, issues of rhetoric versus philosophy in political discourse, and virtue as such." -- Patricia Cook, Loyola College, Maryland