About The Republic
Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, this classic text is an enquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it. During the conversation, other questions are raised: what is goodness?; what is reality?; and what is knowledge? The Republic also addresses the purpose of education and the role of both women and men as guardians of the people. With remarkable lucidity and deft use of allegory, Plato arrives at a depiction of a state bound by harmony and ruled by philosopher kings.
- Complete Title: The Republic
- Format: Paperback
- Language: English
- Number of Pages: 416
- Publication Time: February 25, 2003
- Publisher: Penguin Classics
- ISBN: 0140449140
- ISBN13: 9780140449143
About Plato
Plato
427 BC-347 BC
The Republic
, the best known of these many dialogues with Socrates, mentor, as the central character, expounds idealism of noted Greek philosopher Plato and describes a hypothetical utopian state that thinkers rule; he taught and wrote for much his life at the Academy, which he founded near Athens around 386 BC. Platonism, the philosophy of Plato, especially asserts the phenomena of the world as an imperfect and transitory reflection of ideal forms, an absolute and eternal reality.
Aristotle began as a pupil of Plato. Plotinus and his successors at Alexandria in the 3rd century developed Neoplatonism, a philosophical system, based on Platonism with elements of mysticism and some Judaic and Christian concepts. Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinascombined Neoplatonism with the doctrines of Aristotle within a context of Christian thought.
This classical mathematician and student started the first institution of higher learning in the western world. Alongside his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the western science.
Plato of the most important western exerted influence on virtually every figure and authored the first comprehensive work on politics. Plato also contributed to ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. Aristotle, his extremely influential student, also tutored Alexander the Great of Macedonia.
Reviews The Republic
Brendan
Let me explain why I’d recommend this book to everyone: Plato is stupid. Seriously.And it’s important that you all understand that Western society is based on the fallacy-ridden ramblings of an idiot…
Everyman
All the criticisms of Plato are valid. He raises straw arguments. He manipulates discussions unfairly. He doesn’t offer realistic solutions. And so on.But he is still, and for very good reason, the mo…
Ahmad Sharabiani
Πολιτεία = The Republic, PlatoThe Republic is a Socratic dialogue, written by Plato around 380 BC, concerning justice, the order and character of the just city-state, and the just man. It is P…
Henry Avila
Plato’s “The Republic”, is a great but flawed masterpiece of western literature, yes it makes sense, mostly, some of it. “I am the wisest man in the world because I know one thing, that I know nothing…
Emily May
My re-reading of this for my university course has led me to the same conclusions I found when I first read it a couple of years back, except this time I am fortunate enough to have understood it bett…
Luís
As far as I can remember, I’ve always loved philosophy: who hasn’t dreamed of an ideal world?”The Republic” is one of the books that you must have read; I think, if you like philosophy, I will dare an…
Riku Sayuj
Is the attempt to determine the way of man’s life so small a matter in your eyes—to determine how life may be passed by each one of us to the greatest advantage? (1.344d)I propose therefore tha…
Roy Lotz
I’ve gotten into the habit of dividing up the books I’ve read by whether I read them before or after Plato’s Republic. Before The Republic, reading was a disorganized activity—much the same as…
Baba
“Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind.”― Plato, The RepublicA book, that I suppose we all have…