The most compelling features of Milton’s Socratic Rationalismare its thoughtful reconstruction of several intimate but nonetheless key moments in Paradise Lost, as well as its charting of Milton’s reappropriation of ancient narrative, structure, and rhetorical devices.. . . . Milton’s Socratic Rationalismis a thoughtful book which deserves the careful attention of scholars of Milton, ancient Greek political thought, literary criticism, and the history of political thought.

The Review of Politics

In a time where many literary critics think that the “author is dead,” or, if he is living at all, a mere function of his social context, David Oliver Davies’ new book, Milton’s Socratic Rationalism, is a breath of fresh air. Davies boldly proclaims that we have something to learn from John Milton, for, he argues, Milton is one of those rare and outstanding human beings whose quest for truth led him to an inner freedom that allowed him to see the human situation as it is. For anyone who hopes to understand Milton’s thought as a whole, as well as Paradise Lost in particular, this book is indispensable.

VoegelinView

Responding to a critic who said Milton had only blindness in common with Homer, G.E. Lessing said Paradise Lost was the finest epic since Homer. For, he argued, the range of Milton’s inner vision was more valuable than his physical sight since it gained him mental freedom. In Milton’s Socratic Rationalism, David Davies reveals how subtly Milton used his freedom.

- Paul Dowling, Canisius College,