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432 book Reviews

Antis Loizides ’s Platonic Heritage. Through Character (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013), xxvi + 248 pp. $75.00. ISBN 9780739173930.

In a letter to C.H. Pearson of May 10th, 1865 Henry Sidgwick stated that John Stuart Mill ‘from 1860-1865 or thereabouts . . . ruled England in the region of thought as very few men ever did’. Mill was in a way meant to become a public intellectual, considering his radical and reformist education, his early partici- pation in Utilitarian intellectual enterprises and the character of his own phi- losophy, which stressed the public aspects of intellectual activity: this aimed at the ‘improvement of mankind’, and Mill always interpreted the role of the phi- losopher as consisting in advancing the intellectual condition of the age by questioning common opinion and combating prejudice. This is all well known. Less known, although well documented in Mill’s writings, starting with his Autobiography, is the classical inspiration of his view of philosophy and the role of the philosopher, which can be traced back to ; or rather, to Mill’s interpretation of the Platonic and his mission. This important aspect of Mill’s thought is explored by Antis Loizides’ insightful and well-documented work, which investigates Mill’s complex ‘Platonic heritage’ in two respects: the actual influence of Plato’s philosophy on Mill’s thought as well as the role model exercised by Plato’s Socrates on Mill’s conception of the philosopher’s activity. In the first part of the book Loizides examines the reception and the use of the classics (Greek, and especially Athenian and Spartan history, philosophy, literature) in nineteenth century England. He correctly emphasizes the politi- cal uses of the classics, which were exploited both by reformist and conserva- tive thinkers in writings and public debates on educational and social reforms; special attention is devoted to the role in these debates of Bentham and James Mill, who stressed the importance of classical studies for moulding individu- als endowed with a critical . This conviction countered the widespread view that classical education served the purpose of enforcing and maintaining class division. One of the most interesting parts of the book concerns the use of Athenian history by British historians in the late eighteenth and early nine- teenth century. Prompted by fear of radical reforms in the wake of the French revolution, many British historians portrayed Athenian democracy as a radical form of government in which the people were manipulated by demagogues and swayed by the sophists – a tyrannical regime to which they opposed the mixed constitution of England. In this context Loizides shows very well the importance of George Grote’s work in turning the tide of scholarly works, and public opinion, concerning the sophists and Athenian democracy. In the

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���4 | doi 10.1163/20512996-12340025 book Reviews 433 second chapter Loizides examines the situation in the study of Plato in England at the beginning of the nineteenth century. He notices that lack of interest in Plato’s philosophy, attributable to the fact that Plato’s works were not avail- able in English translation until the end of the eighteenth century and to his association with the metaphysical speculations of the Platonists; notwithstanding some previous notable attempts, the situation was to change radically only in the second half of the nineteenth century, with the works and powerful interpretations of Grote and Jowett. Here Loizides illustrates how Plato was appropriated by different thinkers and schools of thought, a process which gave rise to a prophetic Christian Plato, a radical sceptic Plato (Grote’s and the two Mills’), and an idealist Plato (Coleridge’s). James Mill’s view and use of Plato is the subject of the subsequent chapter. Loizides reminds the reader of James Mill’s reputation as a Greek scholar (he was even offered the Greek chair at the University of Glasgow in 1818) and then goes on to show how he appropriated many Platonic ideas and, more generally, Plato’s view on education, while rejecting his undemocratic conclusions. Mill, however, cred- ited Plato’s Republic with attempting to make the interest of the rulers coin- cide with that of the ruled (p. 49) – which was Mill’s own recipe for a government. In the second part of the book Loizides examines John Stuart Mill’s modes and ways of appropriating Plato. He shows how Mill’s ‘first reading’ of Plato (in his translation of seven dialogues of 1834) is characterized by the emphasis put on Plato’s ‘innovative mode of pursuing truth’ rather than on his conclusions or alleged ‘system’ (p. 86). Mill’s ‘second reading’ of Plato is through the influ- ence of Grote, with whom he agrees almost completely in identifying Plato’s importance with his relentless pursuit of truth through negative dialectics: in this view, Plato was a radical reformer who wanted to fight ignorance and prej- udice. While the first two parts of Loizides’ book provide the context and the background information for Mill’s lifelong engagement with Plato, it is in the third part that the originality of the work mostly resides. Building on recent scholarship on the subject, Loizides identifies the central importance of Mill’s idea of an ‘art of life’ (which first appears in the third edition of his System of Logic) and emphasizes its significance for correctly interpreting Mill’s notion of happiness. Loizides follows the appearance and evolution of this notion in Mill’s works and argues that Mill’s reading of Plato strongly influenced his eudaimonistic conception of happiness as well as his choice of words: ‘art’ for Mill retains the connection between theory and practice and this concept has a directive role in Mill’s works, in that it consists in the first of con- duct. For Mill, the end of the art of life is the promotion of happiness of man- kind (p. 131); happiness, however, is the final end but not the sole end of human polis, The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought 31 (2014) 425-473