‘This study of Plato’s Socratic writings, interpreted from the viewpoint of their dialogue form, and carried out by means of techniques of literary analysis inspired by contemporary philosophers, brings to light an entire network of intrigues beneath the surface of Plato’s narration. This original and provocative work seeks to unravel the tangled trail of intrigues. The book is filled with twists and surprises.’

Luc Brisson, Co-President of the International Plato Society; Director of Research, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris; and author of Plato the Myth Maker


‘Aakash Singh Rathore ingeniously reinscribes Plato’s work into our own day by revealing its ancestry in Socratic argument as much as Sophistic rhetoric. He challenges textbook orthodoxies in evoking authors and artists from Strauss, Xenophon, Nietzsche and Shaw to Homer, Rodin and Myron. Deploying drama, conspiracies and humor, Rathore’s creative rereading of Plato is rigorously grounded in texts while exploring their esoteric unconscious. Consequently, he establishes intellectual freedom as egalitarian precisely because it is won through processes of indirect communication, intense physical labor and immense responsibility.’ 

Kanchana Mahadevan, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Mumbai, India, and author of Between Femininity and Feminism: Colonial and Postcolonial Perspectives on Care 


‘With easy erudition Aakash Singh Rathore draws an enigmatic and entertaining thread through the complex oeuvre of a philosopher whose broad shoulders hold the edifice of western thought. Plato’s Labyrinth challenges many of our settled convictions on the nature of philosophy.’

​Vijay Tankha, former Professor and Head, Department of Philosophy, St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, India, and author of Ancient Greek Philosophy

Plato’s Labyrinth
Sophistries, Lies and Conspiracies in Socratic Dialogues


Contents

Parodos: Esoteric Writing, Sophistries, Lies and Conspiracies
1. The Dramatic Labyrinth: On Plato's Parmenides, page 1
2. The Love of Laughter, on Plato's Republic 1.0
First Intermission: Xenophon's Hiero: A Straussian Rendition
3. The Joy of Sex: On Plato's Republic 2.0
4. How to Train Your Demon: On Plato's Symposium
Second Intermission: Plato's Conspiracy Against the Sophists
5. The Morality of the Master: On Plato's Meno
6. Reading Plato through Homer’s Odyssey:
​A Conspiracy Theory
Exodos: Where Do We Go from Here?

​I dedicate this work to two
of my great teachers . . .

Umberto Eco
Twenty years ago,
under a red Bologna portico,
you said something enigmatic
about a labyrinth.

Jacques Derrida
One Parisian summer.
One Platonic Text.
Seventeen years of flashbacks.

The Examined Life
Reading Plato's Interpreters
​
Review by ​Sreejith Sugunan, The Caravan

​'Rathore’s most radical finding from his readings concerns education. He holds that Plato’s idea of an education in philosophy was not limited to training the intellect, but also stressed the rigour of the body—a “unity of intellectual and physical” that aimed at the development of one’s reason as well as spiritedness. Rathore claims there has been a deliberate attempt in the previous readings of Plato to blunt this “radical and revolutionary” proposal. Courage is enhanced by the presence of physical virtues such as athleticism, and this courage helps us stick to our convictions and fight for them, which can be radically transformative. And “very few people” want us to develop such transformative agency. Genuine education would allow us to understand that we are being “bound and chained” when we should be “flourishing and free.” If educated, we would not only call out injustice, but also “initiate our dynamic agency” to correct it, a possibility that threatens the privileged.'

​Plato and Sophists: Arguments for the Weak
The Indian Express

Review of Plato's Labyrinth
Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics​
​
By Biraj Mehta Rathi

The Philosopher in Plato’s Labyrinth 
Youth Ki Awaaz
​
​Review by Nachi Keta

"Above is the most important esoteric teaching of Plato’s Labyrinth: learn how to read first. It can be a guidebook to potential philosophers on ‘how to do philosophy’."

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