The Republic (Penguin Classics)
(Part of the Platonis opera (#6) Series, (#3) Series, and Plato's Dialogues (#4) Series)
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Book Overview
Plato's "The Republic" is widely acknowledged as the cornerstone of Western philosophy. Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, it is an inquiry 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; 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."
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0140449140
ISBN13:9780140449143
Release Date:February 2003
Publisher:Penguin Classics
Length:496 Pages
Weight:0.78 lbs.
Dimensions:7.7" x 0.9" x 5.2"
Age Range:18 years and up
Grade Range:Grade 12 and higher
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Very good for an inexpensive translation
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
I'm wrapping up a semester of teaching this translation of Republic, and I've had few complaints. Waterfield's editorial hand is visible, but that in itself, in the hands of a competent teacher, leads to good discussions above and beyond Plato's ideas. With regards to Plato's masterwork, there's no good place to start save reading it for oneself. Plato is dead wrong in places (with regards to poetry and marriage just to get rolling), but his genius is that he's wrong as an idealist philosopher, encouraging readers to assert and refine their own ideals as counter-arguments. In other words, in order to refute Plato, one must out-Plato Plato. Deconstruction is fine for deconstructionists, but a good discussion of this juggernaut of ancient thought is the life for me.
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