In her introduction to a translation of the Statesman, Julia Annas remarks that as ‘stimulating as Plato’s political ideas in the Statesman are, it is not surprising that the dialogue has been relatively neglected by comparison with the Republic and the Laws’ (Annas and Waterfield 1995: x). A glance at Dimas et al.’s bibliography shows that the situation has improved since then, although the Statesman remains underdiscussed. Thus, the current volume is very welcome.
The dialogue is divided into eleven passages running consecutively from its beginning with a chapter devoted to each. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Rachel Barney, Gábor Betegh, David Bronstein, Amber Carpenter, Christoph Horn, Rachana Kamtekar, Gavin Lawrence, Fabián Mié, and Franco Trivigno. Melissa Lane also writes a chapter. There is a lengthy and substantive introduction, to which each editor contributes a section. Although the chapters are more discursive than, for example,...
