“Philosophy – it’s a big bag of dicks,” or so I have previously boiled down the thought of Jacques Ranciere.

Now, one of his key works “Hatred of Democracy,” has been released as part of Verso’s Radical Thinkers Set 8. The book is a short, easy read, and offers a scathing critique of Platonism and its influence on modern thought.

Giuseppina Mecchia writes of “Hatred of Democracy” in “Jacques Ranciere: Key Concepts,”

Democracy cannot but be the object of philosophical hatred, says Ranciere, because it provokes the ire both of the disappointed leftists who cannot accept that the people still do not “understand” how they are duped every day by the oligarchic, media-supported, capitalist “democracies”, and of the pessimist reactionaries who would rather have it done with the sovereignty of a people in such dire need of ethical and political guidance

This excerpt is from the chapter “Politics, or the Lost Shepherd.” The title invokes Plato’s Republic, which describes a good ruler as one who cares for their subjects as a shepherd does for their sheep.

You can enter to win this book and others at our giveaway, ending soon!

Also check out the others excerpts from the Radical Thinker series here.