The"Statesman"is a difficult and puzzling Platonic dialogue. In"A Stranger's Knowledge"Marquez argues that Plato abandons here the classic idea, prominent in the"Republic," that the philosopher, "qua"philosopher, is qualified to rule. Instead, the dialogue presents the statesman as"different"from the philosopher, the possessor of a specialist expertise that cannot be reduced to philosophy. Theexpertise is of how to make a city resilient against internal and external conflict in light of the imperfect sociality of human beings and the poverty of their reason. This expertise, however, cannot be...