Selected by CHOICE as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1992. This book provides a detailed analysis of one of the most influential philosophical works in the emergence of Western philosophy. Its originality lies in the author's discussion of the political significance of the "Republic" and of the relationship between philosophy and politics which it advocates. In eloquent, clear language it also examines the different spatial settings of the dialogue-drama, myth, utopia and discourse-and throws new light on the symmetrical structure of the text. The author discusses the "Republic" in terms of discursive events and political acts. Plato's act is placed in the context of a politico-discursive crisis in Athens at the end of the fifth and the beginning of the fourth century B.C. that gave rise to the dialogue's primary question, that of justice.