Plato's Caves

The Liberating Sting of Cultural Diversity

Rebecca LeMoine

Makes an important and timely intervention into debates on cultural diversity, presenting a nuanced stance that defends cross-cultural engagement while also acknowledging the challenges it poses
Fills a major gap in the scholarship on Plato by offering a comprehensive examination of the role of foreigners in his political thought
Provides a helpful framework for conceptualizing Plato's thoughts on interpolity and intercultural relations by presenting an original interpretation of Plato's cave allegory

Plato's Caves

The Liberating Sting of Cultural Diversity

Rebecca LeMoine

Description

Months before the 2016 United States presidential election, universities across the country began reporting the appearance of white nationalist flyers featuring slogans like "Let's Become Great Again" and "Protect Your Heritage" against the backdrop of white marble statues depicting figures such as Apollo and Hercules. Groups like Identity Evropa (which sponsored the flyers) oppose cultural diversity and quote classical thinkers such as Plato in support of their anti-immigration views. The traditional scholarly narrative of cultural diversity in classical Greek political thought often reinforces the perception of ancient thinkers as xenophobic, and this is particularly the case with interpretations of Plato. While scholars who study Plato reject the wholesale dismissal of his work, the vast majority tend to admit that his portrayal of foreigners is unsettling. From student protests over the teaching of canonical texts such as Plato's Republic to the use of images of classical Greek statues in white supremacist propaganda, the world of the ancient Greeks is deeply implicated in a heated contemporary debate about identity and diversity.

In Plato's Caves, Rebecca LeMoine defends the bold thesis that Plato was a friend of cultural diversity, contrary to many contemporary perceptions. LeMoine shows that, across Plato's dialogues, foreigners play a role similar to that of Socrates: liberating citizens from intellectual bondage. Through close readings of four Platonic dialogues—Republic, Menexenus, Laws, and Phaedrus—LeMoine recovers Plato's unique insight into the promise, and risk, of cross-cultural engagement. Like the Socratic "gadfly" who stings the "horse" of Athens into wakefulness, foreigners can provoke citizens to self-reflection by exposing contradictions and confronting them with alternative ways of life. The painfulness of this experience explains why encounters with foreigners often give rise to tension and conflict. Yet, it also reveals why cultural diversity is an essential good. Simply put, exposure to cultural diversity helps us develop the intellectual humility we need to be good citizens and global neighbors. By illuminating Plato's epistemological argument for cultural diversity, Plato's Caves challenges readers to examine themselves and to reinvigorate their love of learning.

Plato's Caves

The Liberating Sting of Cultural Diversity

Rebecca LeMoine

Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Setting the Stage: A World of Caves
Part I: Athenians and foreigners
3. The Panharmonic Music of the Piraeus: Diversity, Democracy, and Philosophy in the Republic
4. Civic Myths through Immigrant Voices: Aspasia as Gadfly in the Menexenus
Part II: Athenians as foreigners
5. An Athenian in Crete: Moderating the Song of the Armed Camp in the Laws
6. Socrates the Foreigner? Self-Examination and Civic Identity in the Phaedrus
7. Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Plato's Caves

The Liberating Sting of Cultural Diversity

Rebecca LeMoine

Author Information

Rebecca LeMoine, Associate Professor of Political Science, Florida Atlantic University

Rebecca LeMoine is Associate Professor of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University. She has published work in academic journals including the American Political Science Review, History of Political Thought, and Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought.

Plato's Caves

The Liberating Sting of Cultural Diversity

Rebecca LeMoine

Reviews and Awards

"For some readers of Plato's Caves the primary object will be to better understand Plato, and for others the primary object will be to better understand cultural diversity. In either case, there is much to be learned from this study." - Michelle M. Kundmueller, Old Dominion University, The Review of Politics

"Rebecca LeMoine powerfully challenges pernicious claims that Plato's political philosophy underwrites a Western cultural orthodoxy, that his thought is closed to non-Greek or foreign influences, and that he is deeply xenophobic. As sensitive to the distinct literary forms of the dialogues as to their philosophical meaning, LeMoine shows how Plato uses the foreign or alien to provoke his own characters as well as his readers into the kind of aporia and epistemic humility necessary for genuine inquiry into difficult questions."-Susan D. Collins, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame "

"Timely and important, Plato's Caves boldly upends readings of Platonic political philosophy as xenophobic, nativist, and/or ethno-nationalist. Persuasively demonstrating that the Republic, Laws, Phaedrus, and Menexenus depict foreigners and strangers as crucial to political justice and deliberation, and for philosophical reflection as well, Rebecca LeMoine shows Plato's dialogues to be indispensable resources for insular and insulating times."-Jill Frank, author of Poetic Justice: Rereading Plato's Republic "

"In this deeply insightful work, Rebecca LeMoine carefully examines how Plato's dialogues engage foreignness-inside and outside of Athens-to expose the contradictions, fictions, and unexamined customs that keep political communities trapped within their own caves. LeMoine listens closely to the seemingly discordant voices within the texts, attending thoughtfully to the historical and dramatic context. Plato's Caves illuminates questions of belonging, citizenship, and the value of cultural diversity in both ancient Athens and our own contemporary political life, revealing a critical epistemological role for the 'sting of cultural diversity.'"-Elizabeth Markovits, Professor of Politics, Mount Holyoke College "

"Plato's Caves is an original, effectively argued work that will enliven Plato scholarship and generate a significant scholarly conversation."-David Roochnik, Professor of Philosophy and Maria Stata Professor of Classical Greek Studies, Boston University "

"In this startling new reading of Plato, Rebecca LeMoine uncovers a Plato whose dialogues foster an appreciation of rather than hostility to cultural diversity. In so doing, she brings Plato into conversation about the benefits of cross-cultural engagements, highlighting how the 'sting of foreign gadflies' leads to the wonder that is emblematic of Socratic wisdom. This provocative and original assessment of Plato as embracing diversity forces the reader to rethink how the ancient philosopher enters current debates about the place of the foreigner in political communities."-Arlene Saxonhouse, Department of Political Science, University of Michigan "