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dabina's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
actually a rly pleasant and relatively easy read! it's like fantasy-philosophy which is really cool. also a foundational canon read ig
kricitt's review
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
2.5
X-post with GR
Grube’s translation is well done, the material itself dense and hard to get through at times.
Grube’s translation is well done, the material itself dense and hard to get through at times.
rachelditty's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Out of all the philosophical texts I've read this [academic] year, this was by far the easiest to digest, and I found myself agreeing with a good number of Plato's ideas. Had to skip over a few of the later books, but I'd like to revisit this some time.
smarcorodriguez's review
4.0
Plato's Republic in Ten Lines:
Book I: Just because you’re really mean Thrasymachus, doesn’t mean you’re right, ya big bully. Just give me nine more books and I’ll prove you wrong… sort of?
Book II: Let’s build the perfect city. It’ll be full of guardians, who are kinda like philosophers, who are kinda like dogs.
Book III: In the perfect city, the only music we’ll allow is the stuff they play in hotel lobbies, and our food will be bland so that you don’t eat too much. Also we’ll make up stories of where this perfect city came from even though they’re not true.
Book IV: In the perfect city, everyone will know their place.
Book V: In the perfect city we’ll use eugenics to engineer a master race, and use religion as a drug to keep the masses under our control. (Doesn’t this city sound swell!?)
Book VI: The perfect city will be ruled by a musical aristocrat with a good memory.
Book VII: Education is about discovering who you are and becoming your true self. You do you, Soul!
Book VIII: There’s a lot of different ways to rule a city. A king is the best and a tyrant is the worst, but democracy and equality are pretty bad too.
Book IX: Inside every tyrant is a slave who didn’t listen to his master.
Book X: The poets are a buncha crybabies, not like us manly men philosophers. Don’t cry: for your sins on earth your soul will experience hundreds of years of torment in an endless cycle of reincarnation. Have a nice lifes.
Book I: Just because you’re really mean Thrasymachus, doesn’t mean you’re right, ya big bully. Just give me nine more books and I’ll prove you wrong… sort of?
Book II: Let’s build the perfect city. It’ll be full of guardians, who are kinda like philosophers, who are kinda like dogs.
Book III: In the perfect city, the only music we’ll allow is the stuff they play in hotel lobbies, and our food will be bland so that you don’t eat too much. Also we’ll make up stories of where this perfect city came from even though they’re not true.
Book IV: In the perfect city, everyone will know their place.
Book V: In the perfect city we’ll use eugenics to engineer a master race, and use religion as a drug to keep the masses under our control. (Doesn’t this city sound swell!?)
Book VI: The perfect city will be ruled by a musical aristocrat with a good memory.
Book VII: Education is about discovering who you are and becoming your true self. You do you, Soul!
Book VIII: There’s a lot of different ways to rule a city. A king is the best and a tyrant is the worst, but democracy and equality are pretty bad too.
Book IX: Inside every tyrant is a slave who didn’t listen to his master.
Book X: The poets are a buncha crybabies, not like us manly men philosophers. Don’t cry: for your sins on earth your soul will experience hundreds of years of torment in an endless cycle of reincarnation. Have a nice lifes.
tshepiso's review
1.0
There's very little point in me reviewing The Republic. Other than a record of my opinions on the experience of reading it I have very little to add to the discourse. In brief: I thought Plato's opinions on society and his pontification on the nature of the soul and reality was bad. I was not fond of the eugenics or the authoritarianism. As someone who doesn't believe in souls, I couldn't really get on board with 95% of his metaphysics. While he occasionally made points I agreed with (I'm patiently waiting for that class war he promised would come from democracy) his fundamental views on life were so discordant with my own that I couldn't really get anything from his work.
I know I don't like philosophy and I'm not looking forward to all the other treatises I'll probably be forced to read throughout university.
I know I don't like philosophy and I'm not looking forward to all the other treatises I'll probably be forced to read throughout university.
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