process, political discourse, and the work of love. Not all of her conceits work, but the sheer rigor and intelligence on display here elevate Plato at the Googleplex far above the slippery anecdotal approach of a Malcolm Gladwell book. Goldstein is comprehensive in her knowledge of Plato and draws on the most thoughtful traditions of Platonic scholarship in the last decades (scholars such as , , and ), and she presents a comprehensive overview of a philosopher whose only serious rival for influence in the secular world is Confucius. She presents Plato at his best and most relevant—the Plato most deserving of our attention. Consequently Plato at the Googleplex merits comparison to two of the best books of its kind in recent years, Kathryn Schulz’s and Daniel Kahneman’s, but Goldstein’s is, in my opinion, the best of the lot, not because it necessarily has more facts or science, but because it hits more deeply and broadly at the faults of our societal discourse and makes us (well, me at least) feel embarrassed over it. Plato’s ultimate teaching, in her words, is a difficult one to follow: Above all, my Plato is the philosopher who teaches us that we should never rest assured that our view, no matter how well argued and reasoned, amounts to the final word on any matter. And that includes our view of Plato. When he visits Google, Goldstein’s Plato questions an engineer’s suggestion that ethics could be crowdsourced. I was reminded not of any philosopher, but of hacker/activist Aaron Swartz. Many years before his persecution on trumped-up charges by the government and subsequent suicide, he wrote , which concludes: “Surowiecki's book fails because of a lack of dissent. Nothing goes against the grain, he doesn't justify his positions, and he has clearly prejudged the question.” There was a true heir to Socrates and Plato. --- by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. Pantheon.
process, political discourse, and the work of love. Not all of her conceits work, but the sheer rigor and intelligence on display here elevate Plato at the Googleplex far above the slippery anecdotal approach of a Malcolm Gladwell book. Goldstein is comprehensive in her knowledge of Plato and draws on the most thoughtful traditions of Platonic scholarship in the last decades (scholars such as , , and ), and she presents a comprehensive overview of a philosopher whose only serious rival for influence in the secular world is Confucius. She presents Plato at his best and most relevant—the Plato most deserving of our attention. Consequently Plato at the Googleplex merits comparison to two of the best books of its kind in recent years, Kathryn Schulz’s and Daniel Kahneman’s, but Goldstein’s is, in my opinion, the best of the lot, not because it necessarily has more facts or science, but because it hits more deeply and broadly at the faults of our societal discourse and makes us (well, me at least) feel embarrassed over it. Plato’s ultimate teaching, in her words, is a difficult one to follow: Above all, my Plato is the philosopher who teaches us that we should never rest assured that our view, no matter how well argued and reasoned, amounts to the final word on any matter. And that includes our view of Plato. When he visits Google, Goldstein’s Plato questions an engineer’s suggestion that ethics could be crowdsourced. I was reminded not of any philosopher, but of hacker/activist Aaron Swartz. Many years before his persecution on trumped-up charges by the government and subsequent suicide, he wrote , which concludes: “Surowiecki's book fails because of a lack of dissent. Nothing goes against the grain, he doesn't justify his positions, and he has clearly prejudged the question.” There was a true heir to Socrates and Plato. --- by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein. Pantheon.