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Title: The Republic of Plato by Plato, Allan Bloom ISBN: 0-465-06934-7 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: September, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.59 (17 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Evil In Disguise
Comment: The seeds of Marxism were sown here and, hence, socialism and all its virulent forms, including communism, fascism, and nazism.
Rating: 3
Summary: For those willing to disagree
Comment: So you've asked some of the tough questions. You've questioned your teachers, you've questioned your parents, you've questioned yourself (you never thought to ask your boss), but no one seems to know--and you want answers. The Republic is not the book for you to read--unless you're willing to try to arrive at your own conclusions.
What is Justice? Minding one's own business, of course. If only Socrates had come upon this idea when he was young, the rest of us might have been spared all the torment. In the "Republic," however, he comes upon this conclusion before we are1/3 of the way through the book, and before the real summit of the dialogue. So, with regard to the fact that Socrates seems to be disobeying his own advice (being patently unjust), what could he mean by his definition of justice?
Why is life, your life--your only life, perhaps,--best led in pursuit and obeyance of reason? Why not something else? What else is there to pursue/obey? What's the difference between a poet/artist and a philosopher? Don't the artists have a better time? Should a ruler lie to his/her constituents? His/her children? How important is family? What is inherent in a person? What isn't? How much control do we have and how should we use what we have? What political structure would be best for people? Do the ends justify the means, especially if no one sees the means? Is Justice good in itself? Like dancing or great love making? And is Justice good for its consequences? How should I live my life? Why? Why? WHY???
How do we begin to understand our place in the world?? How do we begin to understand the world??
The Republic will not answer any of these questions for you--unless you believe everything your parents told you. But this book will help you to understand much more closely what you believe about all of these questions and many more. It will encourage you to come up with reasons of your own for your opinions. And it will point out some starting points for the last couple questions.
How can someone give The Republic 3 stars? You just press a button, move the mouse, and press it again. I'd give it 5 stars if I thought that anyone would reconsider reading the book because they saw that the average review was a mere 4 1/2 stars. But, of course, it will only get the number of readers that any other great but difficult book gets--not enough.
Is Bloom's translation the only responsible way to read The Republic? No. It would be entirely possible to read the book in greek without reading it responsibly. The only truly responsible way to read the Republic is to read it attentively with the use of all of one's faculties. Whether you agree or disagree with each question/statement is of paramount importance, as is the relation between your tentative conclusions. The difficulty of reading responsibly, however, fatigues even professional scholars whose reputations are on the line (although that may not be the most important of wagers). Luckily, one of the beauties of the Republic is that it really does cater to every level of engagement, except non-engagement, and tries to stimulate each person to further thought.
The Republic will not be too much for you. Or, rather, it will be too much, but that only means you're human. And, though it will challenge your beliefs and opinions, shock--even scare--you, and throw much of your clarity and order into confusion, I believe you will be a better person for having honestly asked these questions. And that you will become better by trying to answer them.
Life demands that you live by your answers to these questions and many more like them. They are worth asking.
Plus, the overall structure of the ideas contains a beauty seldom seen in any human creation.
Altogether, a really good book. A life changer.
Rating: 5
Summary: The classic--what did you expect?
Comment: There probably isn't much I can add in a scholarly vein to what people have already said about Plato. So I thought I would make a few personal observations from the standpoint of a somewhat philosophically literate, 21st century man who is reading such an august classic in middle age.
I came to this book with more of a background in modern epistemology and the philosophy of science than in classical philosophy. So political philosophy isn't exactly my strong suit, but nevertheless I found the book interesting reading in a way I hadn't really thought of before.
Actually, I had read portions of this book 20 years ago when I was a young student first studying philosophy, and I have to say, there is something to be said for having a more mature outlook in approaching such a venerable work. At the time I thought political philosophy pretty dull stuff, and besides, I felt there was no real way to answer any of the important political questions that get debated here, despite the easy way Socrates disposes of everybody else's half-baked opinions and theories.
The fact is, if you move ahead 2400 years and read something like Karl Popper's "The Open Society and Its Enemies," an advanced modern work, you can see how much, or how little, political philosophy has progressed in the last 24 centuries.
Well, that may be true, but at least with this book you know where it basically all started. The best way to decide this issue is to read the book and decide for yourself.
Although entitled "The Republic," this society isn't like any republic you've probably ever read about. Plato proposes an ant- like communism where there is no private ownership of property, philosophers are kings, kings are philosophers, people cultivate physical, moral, and ethical qualities, and the idea of the good takes the place of political and social virtues.
Another odd facet is that the bravest citizens are permitted more wives than those less brave in battle. And then there is the infamous proposition that all poets and artists are to be banished since they are harmful purveyors of false illusions.
I find the Socratic method as a way of moving along the dialogue between the participants sort of interesting, and it is certainly an effective device. However, none of these people, even the famous Sophist Thrasymachus, are really Socrates' intellectual equal, so he really doesn't have much competition here.
If ancient Athens disproportionately had so many towering intellects, relative to its small population (about 20,000 people, most of whom were slaves anyway), you'd think they would show up in Plato's dialogues more. But all we seem to get are second- raters who are really no match for the clever Socrates. Of course, since the dialogues we have were written down by Socrates' most famous student, Plato, perhaps the cards were stacked a little in his teacher's favor.
Yet I would say this is still a great book. Classical scholars say there are more perfect, less flawed dialogues than Plato's Republic, but none that are as profound, wide-ranging, and as influential and important for later philosophy. As someone once wrote, in a sense the entire history of western philosophy "consists of nothing but footnotes to Plato." After finally reading it, I can see why there is so much truth to that statement.
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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 |
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Title: The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli ISBN: 0553212788 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 August, 1984 List Price(USD): $4.50 |
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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 |
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Title: Four Texts on Socrates: Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito and Aristophanes' Clouds by Thomas G. West, Grace Starry West, Plato, Aristophanes ISBN: 0801485746 Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND by Allan Bloom, Saul Bellow ISBN: 0671657151 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 15 May, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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