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

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‘Just as some mysterious force compels the author of Plato's Labyrinth to train for triathlons in the crowded and dangerous labyrinths of New Delhi, so too does this same force compel him, as one of India’s foremost political theorists, to guide his readers through the labyrinths of Plato’s dialogues. What purpose do these two pursuits share? Aakash Singh Rathore refers to the conspiracy in universities that prevents students from understanding fully the radical and erotic nature of Platonic philosophy. This book charms his readers just as Socrates charmed many Athenians to show that philosophizing is not a useless luxury but the most profound form of liberation available to humanity.’
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John von Heyking
, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Lethbridge, Canada, and author of The Form of Politics: Aristotle and Plato on Friendship.

‘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 

​‘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

​‘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.


This original and stimulating study of Plato's Socratic dialogues rereads and reinterprets Plato's writings in terms of their dialogical or dramatic form.

​Taking inspiration from the techniques of Umberto Eco, Jacques Derrida, and Leo Strauss, Aakash Singh Rathore presents the Socratic dialogues as labyrinthine texts replete with sophistries and lies that mask behind them important philosophical and political conspiracies.
​

Plato's Labyrinth argues that these conspiracies and intrigues are of manifold kinds – in some, Plato is masterminding the conspiracy; in others, Socrates, or the Sophists, are the victims of the conspiracies. With supplementary forays ('intermissions') into the world of Xenophon and the Sophists, the complex and evolving series of overlapping arguments that the book lays out unfold within an edgy and dramatic narrative.

Presenting innovative readings of major texts – Plato's Parmenides, Republic, 
​Symposium and Meno
 as also Homer's Odyssey – this work is an ambitious attempt to synthesize philological, political, historical and philosophical research into a classical text-centred study that is at once of urgent contemporary relevance.

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Book Reviews



The Examined Life
Reading Plato's Interpreters
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Review by ​Sreejith Sugunan, The Caravan
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​'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.'
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​Plato and Sophists: Arguments for the Weak
The Indian Express
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Plato's Labyrinth
Review by ​R. Krishnaswamy, Sophia

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Review of Plato's Labyrinth
Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics​

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By Biraj Mehta Rathi
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The Philosopher in Plato’s Labyrinth 
Youth Ki Awaaz
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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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  • Home
  • Ambedkar’s Preamble
  • Vision for a Nation
  • A Philosophy of Autobiography: Body & Text
  • Dalit Feminist Theory
  • B.R. Ambedkar: The Quest for Justice
  • Plato’s Labyrinth
  • Hegel's India
  • Hegel's India - Reviews
  • Indian Political Theory
  • Rethinking Indian Jurisprudence
  • Ironman Experiments
  • Media Articles & Appearances
  • Publications
  • Short Courses
  • Talks, Lectures​, Conferences, Workshops
  • Indian Political Thought
  • The Future of Political Theology
  • From Political Theory to Political Theology
  • Wronging Rights?
  • Global Justice
  • B. R. Ambedkar: The Buddha and His Dhamma
  • Discoursing the Post-Secular
  • Reading Hegel
  • The Complete Indian Wine Guide
  • Buddhism and the Contemporary World
  • India Wins Freedom
  • Eros Turannos
  • Book Series
  • Videos & Podcasts
  • Mind & Muscle - Quora Spaces
  • Contact