Скачать или смотреть Classical Philosophy Reading Group: Plato's Republic, part one

Reading the Republic pulls together many of Plato’s philosophical ideas and at the same time pushes us to think about the entire project of Plato’s philosophy. The Republic could be read as a model for a perfect city state. It is a rejection of Athenian democracy – the democracy that condemned Plato’s friend and mentor Socrates to death. But it does this and so much more. Plato models out the nature of justice based on the city state and the nature of the individual. He builds a psychological model of the individual which he claims the state must reflect if it is to be just.

But who should rule such a state? And how will the rulers be chosen? Plato despises Athenian democracy and instead puts forward the class of philosopher kings to rule the ideal state. But where do we find such enlightened rulers? they should be chosen from the best of us and educated to the best of our ability.

So much of our world is a pale reflection of Plato’s ideas. But Plato’s attempt to put his ideas into practice met with abject failure in his own time. What can all of this tell us? Why is the Republic still the most profound and original set of ideas we constantly turn to from the ancients to inform us of our own attempts to recast society into a utopian future?