Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University, and an associated faculty member in the Department of Classics and the Department of Philosophy at Princeton. In the academic year 2024-25, she was on leave from Princeton, based in the UK as (inter alia) Isaiah Berlin Visiting Professor in the History of Ideas at Oxford: she is the only person ever to have delivered at Oxford both the Berlin Lectures and the Carlyle Lectures. Now back in Princeton, she continues to make regular visits to the UK in her role as the 50th Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College, a non-degree-granting institution founded in London in 1597. In this role, she delivers an extended series of public lectures, which are also livestreamed and available online on YouTube: access here. In 2025-26, the theme of these lectures is “Political Crises in Athens and Rome.” In 2029, she will deliver the Tanner Lectures in Human Values at the University of California, Berkeley.
Melissa Lane
MPhil and PhD in Philosophy (Cantab)
Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University
Melissa Lane’s newest book, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political (PUP, 2023) has been awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy.
Further accolades for Of Rule and Office include:
“[A] meticulous new analysis of Plato’s constitutionalism. . . With the appearance of Melissa Lane’s authoritative Of Rule and Office, debate over the evolution of Plato’s discussion of the vulnerabilities of political office and the various ways in which rule and office might be understood must be nearly at an end.” (Andrew David Irvine, Times Literary Supplement)
“[A] major contribution to our faltering efforts to understand the challenges of politics across the world” (John Dunn, History of European Ideas)
A “great achievement” written with “extraordinary scrupulousness”: “What Melissa Lane’s book does is to drill down through all the layers, as others have not done, to the political bedrock below” (Christopher Rowe, Mind)
Attention to the political significance of the book includes:
Op ed in ‘The Hill’ on office and the Trump immunity case on 7/17/2024, by Jane Manners and Melissa Lane
Op ed in US News & World Report on Plato & ethics of Supreme Court Justices and their families
Episode 75 of “Timeless Leadership” podcast with Scott Monty
Op ed in the LA Times online-first on 3/23/2024, by Jane Manners and Melissa Lane
“Keeping Democracy Alive” with Burt Cohen on Plato: The Benefits of Acting Justly
“The Political Mike” with Michael Taylor (Episode 122)
“Facepalm America” with Beowulf Rochlen (April 3)
An article about Lane’s new book in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette here – subscription required
Podcasts and reviews giving an overview of the book’s arguments:
Book symposium (forthcoming) in The Review of Politics
Book symposium in Polis with review articles by Jed W. Atkins, Alex Long, M.M. McCabe, and Raphael Woolf, introduced by Matt Simonton, who calls the book “probably the most significant situating of Plato in his broader historical and constitutional contexts since…1960” and speaks of “the excitement that has greeted the appearance of this work”
Zoom book launch in the Critical Antiquities Workshop (6 August 2024) with discussants Anthony Hooper and Demetra Kasimis: YouTube available soon
Zoom lecture for the Paideia Institute (21 July 2024) now on YouTube: “Plato on Rule and Office: Constitutionalism for the Good of the Ruled”
Oxford New Books roundtable (Vol. 1, No. 1, June 2024): comments by Connor Grubaugh and Miyo Peck-Suzuki with reply by Melissa Lane
Political Theory Review podcast, interviewed by Jeffrey Church, here
Classical Wisdom podcast, interviewed by Anya Leonard, here
Book symposium in History of European Ideas: Introduction by John Dunn; Review articles by Matthew Landauer, Matthew Simonton, Mark Philp, Veronica Rodriguez-Blanco; Response by Melissa Lane.
Book review by Christopher Rowe in Mind
Research Interests
Melissa Lane is a political theorist whose work focuses primarily on ancient Greek philosophy, especially the writings of Plato. She also works on the reception and uses of Plato, informing work which she also does in contemporary political theory, including especially on issues in regard to scientific knowledge, communication, and climate change.
New Publication
Melissa Lane’s major new monograph is Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, published by Princeton University Press on 20 June 2023. It was awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy.
In fall and winter 2023, the book was the topic of panel sessions of the American Political Science Association and UK-IVR Association for law and philosophy, and of book launches at Oxford, Princeton, and Labyrinth Books. Further book launches and lectures on the book have been held in 2024 by the Paideia Institute and Critical Antiquities Workshop. Book symposia have been published or are forthcoming in History of European Ideas, Oxford New Books, Polis, and The Review of Politics. See top right of this webpage for further details.
Selected Forthcoming & Recent Events
16 October 2025
"From Tyranny to Athenian Democracy"
Gresham College Lecture
Barnard’s Inn Hall, London
18:00 GMT
Registration to attend in person or watch online will open one month in advance and can be accessed here
18 September 2025
"Plato's Republic on motivating ecological guardianship"
Lowell Humanities Series
Boston College
19:00 EST
12-13 May 2025
"Authors of the Laws: Rethinking Rousseau's Legislator through Ancient Lawgivers"
The Winch Lectures
University of St Andrews
School V, St Salvator’s Quad, North Street
29 October - 3 December 2024
"Lycurgus to Moses: Thinking through Lawgivers in Legal and Political Philosophy"
The Isaiah Berlin Lectures
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford
Videos & handouts of the six lectures now available