Abstract

While specialists of the Platonic corpus often evoke the most remarkable passages of the Statesman or use it to trace the evolution of Plato’s political thought, few invite us to appreciate this difficult text itself. We can, therefore, only revel in the almost missionary zeal with which Dimitri El Murr champions this neglected dialogue in his Savoir et gouverner.The best way to appreciate the Statesman is to recognize its distinct contribution; and what sets this dialogue apart, according to El Murr, is the attention paid to the idea of politics as a form of knowledge possessed by the ruler. This intense focus on the issue of politics as a science—found neither in the Republic nor Laws—is unique to the Statesman..