Abstract

My dissertation offers an account of the connection between the knowledge of the statesman and the art of political rule as presented in Plato's Statesman. I also show that the Statesman has a determinate organization that structures its argument. The literature on this dialogue is relatively scant and is marked by significant disagreement. I resolve some of these disagreements by close attention to both the argument and organization of the dialogue. ;First, I situate the problem of the connection between knowledge and the art of political rule in the context of Plato's works. I consider Plato's Seventh Letter, Republic, Laws, and Statesman. Of these works concerned with political life, I argue that the Statesman gives the most adequate account of the connection between knowledge and political rule. I then consider the Theaetetus, the first of a trilogy that concludes with the Statesman, which gives an inconclusive account of the connection between knowledge and political rule. I argue that the Statesman addresses the problems that remain unresolved in the Theaetetus. ;Second, in opposition to those who assert that the dialogue is not well organized, I show that Statesman has a definite organization and that this organization informs the argument of the text. My account of the dialogue's organization helps to make this difficult and important dialogue more accessible. As a result, I am able to articulate and resolve scholarly disagreements about the Statesman. ;Finally, I present a comprehensive interpretation of the dialogue and particularly the connection between knowledge and political rule. My account gives priority to the weaver as a paradigm for the statesman. The account has three elements: the statesman as a weaver, the statesman's rule of other arts in the city, and the statesman's drawing together of the citizens into a fabric of citizenry. I argue that the statesman's knowledge is the grounds for his legislative art, by which he rules the practice of the other arts in the city and by which he rules the citizens in their education, marriages, and selection of office-holders. In an epilogue, I assess the practicability of the rule of the statesman