Review of The Greatest of All Plagues: How Economic Inequality Shaped Political Thought From Plato to Marx, by David Lay Williams, Princeton, USA, Princeton University Press, 2024, xv + 403 pages, ISBN Digital (PDF) 9780691255514

Dan-Andrei Năfureanu
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Dan-Andrei Năfureanu: UniBuc - University of Bucharest

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Abstract: This review examines The Greatest of All Plagues (2024) by David Lay Williams, an intellectual history of economic inequality in the Western canon. Drawing its title from Plato's Laws, the book traces the concept of inequality -- understood through the recurring motif of pleonexia (insatiable greed) -- across seven influential figures: Plato, Jesus Christ, Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill and Karl Marx. Williams situates each thinker within their socio-economic context, arguing that philosophical reflection on inequality has consistently emerged in response to concrete historical crises and remains indispensable for contemporary political economy. While acknowledging the book's strengths - its interdisciplinary scope, close textual analysis, and contemporary relevance - the review also considers its limitations, including its exclusive focus on the Western canon and the practical inadequacy of some historical prescriptions. Nevertheless, it concludes that Williams offers a timely and philosophically rich intervention. By recovering neglected resources within canonical texts, the author challenges economists, political leaders, scholars and the wealthy elites alike to confront inequality as a structural and moral problem central to the fate of modern democracy.

Keywords: History of Philosophy; Political Economy; Political Philosophy; Inequality; Greed (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-02-15
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