Volume 40, Number 12 · June 24, 1993
Cautionary Tales
By Alan Ryan
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics
by Jane Jacobs
Random House, 236 pp., $22.00
Plato's Republic, as every schoolboy knows, asked the question, What is Justice? As almost every schoolboy also knows, the surprising answer was that justice consists in 'sticking to your own task.' Many readers express outrage at the reduction of the fundamental social virtue to 'Cobbler, stick to your last.' Injustice seems an altogether larger and more horrible thing than the shoemaker aspiring to the carpenter's job, and they wonder what Plato can have been thinking of. Not the least of the innumerable surprising ideas that Jane Jacobs has packed into Systems of Survival is her claim that Plato got it right.
Review, 2972 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |