Republic
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season324 pages, about 6 hours: about the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbBook 1 opens at the Piraeus festival, where Cephalus and then Thrasymachus draw Socrates into a debate about justice.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 13 reviews from critics and book blogs, none credit the plot and 13 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesOne reading guide calls the Symposium, on the shelf at 79 pages, a shorter, simpler entry point into Plato.
The case for it
on the cave allegory
“referenced, reinterpreted, and overused to the point of exhaustion, yet somehow still lands.”
a Substack review on the Thrasymachus exchange
“I read that exchange twice in one sitting.”
a book blog on the decline into tyranny
“advice for ordering the soul and his description of how pure democracy devolves into tyranny”
a Substack review on Socrates’ method
“He invented the method of doing and teaching philosophy that has never been improved on.”
Jonathan Glover · Five Books, 2012
The case against
on the length
“given the length and complexity of the thing, I’ve pushed it down the order”
a book blog on Adeimantus and Glaucon
“yes-men (Adeimantus and Glaucon) who serve to break up chunks of text”
a book blog on the guardians’ children
“The offspring of the guardians would be taken away from their family”
a book blog on the range of topics
“sheer breadth of topics and issues that Plato introduces over the course of the dialogue”
Michelle Jenkins · Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2011
