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SCHINDLER, D.C. Plato's Critique of Impure Reason: On Goodness and Truth in the Republic. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University Press, 2008. xii + 358 pp. Cloth, $79.95-Schindler has written a fascinating interpretation of Plato's Republic. After some preliminary reflections on the pervasively problematic, modern, nonteleological, impoverishment of reason, he then plumbs the Republic for solutions to this problem.
Starting from the separation of intelligibility from goodness, Schindler proposes that the opening conversation of the Republic takes place within the cave, under the partiality of shadows and opinions. Image-driven reasoning, represented by Thrasymachus, denies any supraindividual measure of reality. The resulting collapse of the distinction between truth and appearance occasions the logic of power and violence. Socrates is challenged to respond within this confining environment.
Glaucon intensifies this challenge and distills it into a radical form by presenting Socrates with a three-fold distinction of the Good: the Good for its own sake, the Good for its benefit, and the Good both for its own sake and for its benefit. In contrast to Glaucon who selects justice only for its benefit, Socrates...