As part of the conference “Democracy in (Permanent) Crisis? Historical Origins and Humanist Foundations of Democratic Order (external link, opens in a new window)”, held from 24 June 2025 to 26 June 2026 and organised by the Berlin University of the Humanities, Prof. Dr Eva Helene Odzuck delivered a lecture on 25 June 2026 on “The Relevance of Classical Greek Philosophy to Modern Democratic Theory”.
Plato has long been regarded as an enemy of democracy. More recent research on Plato has arrived at a more nuanced assessment and emphasises the constructive dimensions of Plato’s critique of democracy. Can we therefore learn anything from Plato’s philosophical engagement with the first democratic experiment for contemporary democratic theory? The lecture argues that classical political philosophy holds significant potential for understanding the democratic present.
You can access a video of the conference here (external link, opens in a new window).