Abstract
I would like to locate the thought-provoking ideas advanced by Lane’s Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Idea of the Political within the context of contemporary intellectual legal philosophy and constitutional theory. Lane interprets Plato’s Republic, Statesman and Laws as advancing two core theses. First, the ruler rules for the good of the ruled. Second, that arché (rule) structures techné from within (this is mainly developed in Chapter 5). An important implication of these two theses is that civic freedom and civic friendship are inevitably enmeshed with rule and office (Chapter 10). This is a significant interpretative turn on Plato’s legal and political philosophy because it puts pressure on the orthodox interpretation among contemporary legal and constitutional theorists that Plato is all about utopia and authoritarianism. Emphasizing the connections between rule, taxis, good of the ruled, and techné within the structure of rule forces us to have a second glance at Plato’s legal and political philosophy.