Masters and Slaves: Revisioned Essays in Political Philosophy
Author(s): Michael Palmer (Author)
Publisher: Lexington Books
Publication Date: 28 May 2001
Language: English
Print length: 176 pages
ISBN-10: 0739102214
ISBN-13: 9780739102213
Book Description
This collection of essays sheds light on the writings of leading figures in the history of political philosophy by exploring a nexus of questions concerning mastery and slavery in the human soul. To this end, Masters and Slaves elucidates archetypal human alternatives in their import for political life: the philosopher and king; the lover of wisdom and the lover of glory; the king and the tyrant; and finally, the master and the slave. Palmer re-examines these ideas as a framework for achieving a deeper understanding of the work of famous thinkers―from the ancient to modern times―including Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau. As well, the book addresses distinctions between the “ancients” and the “moderns,” and touches on the work of contemporary theorists such as Leo Strauss, George Parkin Grant, and Allan Bloom.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Building upon and branching out from his searching and insightful work on Thucydides, Michael Palmer here offers a series of wide-ranging essays on ancient and modern philosophy. The highlight of the book is a set of essays on Machiavelli, including a penetrating analysis of Mandragola that freshly illuminates the Italian philosopher’s achievement as a dramatist. — Paul Cantor, University of Virginia
This edition of Michael Palmer’s essays is a very welcome publishing event. Ranging from the political thought of the ancients to that of the moderns, Palmer’s touch is sure. All serious political theorists will want this book on their shelf. — Jean M. Yarbrough, Bowdoin College
Michael Palmer is one of the most successful teachers of political philosophy in North America today. This collection of his essays shows why. Palmer ranges over the entire history of political thought, combining careful scholarship with trenchant analysis, shedding clear new light on perennial texts and perennial problems. — Clifford Orwin, University of Toronto
The incisive little summary diagnosis of The Prince, by itself, apart from the other gems, makes Palmer’s a book to have. — Robert Faulkner, Boston College
Ranging with graceful erudition and lively intelligence over major figures in the history of political thought from Aristotle to the present, this is a collection of illuminating interpretive studies that will richly reward both students and scholars. — Thomas L. Pangle, University of Texas at Austin
About the Author
Michael Palmer is Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine. He is the author of Love of Glory and the Common Good: Aspects of the Political Thought of Thucydides (1992), and coeditor of Political Philosophy and the Human Soul: Essays in Memory of Allan Bloom (with Thomas L. Pangle).
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