Book cover image courtesy of Princeton University Press
Melissa Lane awarded book prize in history of philosophy
Melissa Lane, the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, has been awarded the Journal of the History of Philosophy's 2024 Book Prize for "Of Rule and Office: Plato's Ideas of the Political" (Princeton University Press, 2023).
Lane is a specialist in ancient Greek political thought. “Of Rule and Office” considers Plato’s thoughts on the accountability of those in power, reflecting on his question: "Who shall guard the guardians?"
"Because that conundrum remains a problem for politics today, Plato's exploration of different ways to address it remains instructive," Lane said.
The book grew out of the Carlyle Lectures that Lane delivered at the University of Oxford in 2018. She learned of the 2024 Book Prize when she was back at Oxford this semester delivering a new series of Isaiah Berlin Lectures there, and the news was announced at the final lecture in that series.
"Being able to share the good news in person with Oxford friends and colleagues who had attended the Carlyle Lectures six years ago was especially meaningful," she said.
Lane is the only person ever to have delivered both the Carlyle and the Berlin Lectures at Oxford.
Beginning in the 2023-24 academic year, she also began giving a series of public lectures at Gresham College in London, part of that institution’s 426-year-old tradition. London audiences attend locally, and the talks are available for streaming globally. Lane’s Gresham Lectures will run through the 2025-26 academic year.
Princeton’s Humanities Council supported her work on both “Of Rule and Office” and her new project on the figure of the ancient Greek lawgiver (presented in the Berlin Lectures and in related lectures at Gresham this academic year) during her tenure as an Old Dominion Professor in the 2020-21 academic year.