Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Republic (Penguin Classics) by Plato, Desmond Lee, Henry Desmond Pritchard Lee ISBN: 0-14-044914-0 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 25 February, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (49 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Plato's Ideal State
Comment: My three-star rating aside, Plato's "The Republic" is a must read for anyone interested in political science. It will make you think about the subjects it covers in a very critical way. Plato is not shy about his opinions and does not couch them in mysterious language. He confronts the reader with them and forces you to consider them.
Of course, part of this directness is attributable to the translator, Desmond Lee. One of the things that makes the Penguin's Classics series so useful is the excellent introductions they contain. In this particular work, Lee presents Plato's contemporary society and how it affected his world view. Lee also prefaces each section with anywhere from two sentences to as much as a page or two in order to assist the reader with understanding some of the finer points of Plato's philosophy.
"The Republic" is primarily concerned with four questions: 1) what is justice?, 2) is it better to be a just man or to only appear to be just?, 3) given our answer to #2, what is the ideal state?, and 4) how are contemporary Greek states imperfect?. The answer to the first three questions are closely related to Plato's philosophy of the Forms. Plato's Form can be thought of as perfection or the ideal. For instance, a carpenter may build a house. The house may appear real to us but it is only a representation of the ideal house, or the Form of a house. Plato says to think of a Form as being created by god and that, when the carpenter builds his house, he may build it in any number of ways and styles, but it will never be as perfect as the Form of the house. The philosopher should only be interested in the Form and not in the inferior representations.
Now, if that sounds a little bit odd to you, then most of "The Republic" must be understood as an outsider looking in. Given that the first three questions are intimately related to that concept, I did find Plato's arguments very unconvincing. However, Plato's discussion of the imperfection of contemporary Greek states is very interesting and pertinent to our time.
For those of us living in the United States, Plato's description of democracy, which he lived under in Athens, and the democratic character should be chilling. Of course, Athenian democracy and American democracy are not the same. The Constitution was written to a great extent to avoid the imbalances of ancient Greek democracies. In fact, in a technical sense, our state is not a democracy at all but a representative democracy.
Plato's main critique of democracy was that it necessarily lead to a reduction in respect for authority and elders. Plato also criticized democracy for its weak leaders. He felt that the democratic character of a man living in a democracy would cause him to promote only those people like himself to positions of power within the state. Given that the average man is, by definition, of average intelligence, skill, and talent, the ablest of a democracy's citizens would be unable to attain the highest positions of power within the state. Since the elected leaders would only be able to keep their positions by pleasing the great mass of citizenry, they would enact laws and regulations which benefited those people to the detriment of the wealthiest. In other words, politicians in a democracy are prone to overtaxing the rich so that they can transfer their wealth and land to the poor.
Plato believed that policies like this would unavoidably lead to class warfare and the forcible transfer of political power to one man, a tyrant, who would be able to secure the masses against the wealthy. Of course, the tyrant would eventually provide himself with a personal army and attempt to enslave the entire populace to his will, thereby securing only himself against the general population.
The American Constitution and the American character have successfully prevented this scenario from occurring here but it cannot prolong it forever. Certain barriers built into the Constitution have already been breached: the income tax, direct election of Senators, and various programs like social security, medicare, and agricultural subsidies are all cracks in the armor of American liberty. If we continue on the path we are headed, American liberty will cease to exist by the end of this century.
As a final note, some readers may find it difficult to follow the format that "The Republic" uses. In Plato's day, philosophical prose was often written in a dialogue format. In this work, Plato uses Socrates as his primary questioner and speaker. This may seem odd to have another, real person speak for you in a political treatise but just know that, every time Socrates speaks, it's really Plato's sentiments being expressed.
Rating: 4
Summary: The brilliant beginning of all philosophy
Comment: Plato's Republic is unquestionably the origin of philosophical lines of thought which are still undoubtedly relevant today. Written in dialogue form (i.e. like a discussion between many characters), the main exponent of the argument is Socrates, Plato's friend and mentor who was executed by the Athenian government - an event which led Plato to effectively denounce democracy as an impractical system. The Republic is the result of this denouncement: beginning with the philosophical question 'What is justice?', it proceeds to lay out the nature of the ideal state. Along the way, we are given Plato's legandary Theory of Forms, including the fantastically simple Simile of the Cave - a brilliant philosophical exposition of the difference between this world and the 'proper', 'real' world of which Earth is only a shadow. Desmond Lee's translation makes the very best of a particularly tricky task, and compromises on several key passages with effective authority. The main problem for the modern layman is in getting used to the Socratic form of argument in textual form - seeing Glaucon and Adeimantus answering with "Yes", "I agree" and "That's quite right" for 350-odd pages will drive anybody a little crazy after a while! That (very minor) nitpick aside, there are two excellent appendices regarding the philosophical passages in the text, plus a detailed bibliography for those who wish to follow up on the book. And it's worth it, believe you me.
Rating: 5
Summary: amazing. a must read for everyone
Comment: Just read it. Plato's idea shaped so many other's after him. If you don't understand what Plato was trying to say then you're doing yourself a disservice. Just in readin this, the reader realyl begins to think. You'll get better at thinking by the time the book is done, for this book teaches the reader how to think. All the ideas are presented in dialog, but if you can just look at what is being said you'll begin to understand. If you only read one thing, make it be this.
 |
Title: The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli ISBN: 0553212788 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 August, 1984 List Price(USD): $4.50 |
 |
Title: The Politics by Aristotle, T.A. Sinclair, Trevor J. Saunders ISBN: 0140444211 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1992 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
Title: The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Martin Edward Malia ISBN: 0451527100 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
 |
Title: The Nicomachean Ethics (Oxford World's Classics) by Aristotle, David Ross, W. D. Ross, J. L. Ackrill, J. O. Urmson ISBN: 019283407X Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
 |
Title: Utopia by Sir Thomas Moore ISBN: 0486295834 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 05 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $1.50 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
