The Politics of Platonism: Voltaire’s Socrate and the Dynamics of Canons
Political Theory: An International Journal of Political Philosophy
Published online on January 25, 2026
Abstract
Political Theory, Volume 54, Issue 2, Page 265-291, April 2026.
What role do canonical figureheads play in the process by which philosophical ideas gain political substance? This paper explores an interpretive shift in the reception of Plato in eighteenth-century Europe, focusing on Voltaire’sSocrate(1759), a three-...
What role do canonical figureheads play in the process by which philosophical ideas gain political substance? This paper explores an interpretive shift in the reception of Plato in eighteenth-century Europe, focusing on Voltaire’sSocrate(1759), a three-...