“Who died and made you king?” Many philosophers and followers of Plato will, without blinking, respond that Plato made them philosopher-kings. Some disciples of Plato acknowledge that this position can be embarrassing. Thus, we have texts like Jonny Thakkar's Plato as Critical Theorist, which struggles to justify philosophers as rulers by squeezing Plato's assertions under Lady Liberty's aegis, as if they had been part of her inclusive couture all along. Parallel projects to keep Plato as high priest include jettisoning the philosopher-king model while peddling the eminence of a Platonic process; say, the Socratic method. For example, Jill Frank in Poetic Justice reads the Republic (577a) as a repudiation of philosopher-kings in favor of people who want a little informed “conversation” with those “awakened to reflection.” The “awakened” seem to include gentle souls like Wayne Booth but not critics of Plato like Kojin Karatani, who denies that Plato and...
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