Abstract

Aristotle's discussion of Plato's Republic in Politics II is argued to be, at least in part, peirastic, on the grounds that nine premises that Aristotle uses in his arguments on unity and property in the city of the guardians are premises that Socrates himself proposes in the dialogue. The paper supports this claim with a table of parallel passages from the two works. The paper concludes that Aristotle uses a peirastic treatment of the Republic as an opportunity to work out his own answers to the problems of unity and property.