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The Republic is perhaps Plato's best-known dialogue and one of
his most influential. In it, he explains, through the character of Socrates, the
fundamentals of his political philosophy (presented,
stylistically, via the concept of a Utopia), his ethics, and his theory of universals
(the 'forms')--among other things. The work is also famous for its literary
style: the text is presented as a discussion between Socrates and several other
students at a dinner, discussing the nature of justice.
The title "Republic" is derived from the Latin title given to the work by Cicero.
Plato's Greek language title, Politeia, described the government of a Polis or city-state. The character
Socrates and his friends discuss the nature of an ideal city rather than the nature of the Athenian democracy.
The Republic bears little to no resemblance to the modern political institution that we, in modern times, know as the
republic. Plato despises democracy (because the term was used in antiquity quite
differently, viz., for mass rule that had gone haywire) and uses "The Republic" to point out some of its weaker points:
susceptibility to demagogues, rule by unfit "barbarians" etc.
The ideal city as depicted in The Republic should be governed by so-called philosopher-kings as the only ones to be
trusted to rule, since because of the human tendency to corruption by power and thus tyranny, ruling should only be left to
those who would rather do something else (in this case, philosophize.
The city of the Republic has struck many modern critics as unduly harsh, rigid, and unfree; indeed, as a kind of
prequel to modern totalitarianism. Karl Popper is perhaps the today still best-known protagonist of that view, which is the view generally
represented in introductory college textbooks on political philosophy.
The perhaps most important alternative interpretation is the one suggested by Hans-Georg Gadamer in his 1934 classic, Plato und die Dichter (and several other works), in
which the city of the Politeia is seen as a heuristic utopia which should not be pursued or even be used as an orientation-point for political
development. Rather, its purpose is said to be to show how things would have to be connected, and how one thing would lead to
another - often with highly problematic results -, if one would opt for certain principles and carry them through rigorously.
This interpretation, based i.a. on the recognition of its often ironic tone (for which to detect, of course, an unusually
high-level of proficiency in Greek is required), allows one to take the
Politeia much more seriously, and it and Plato's entire oeuvre as much less totalitarian, than the mainstream version would suggest.
In this book, Plato also introduces his theory of forms or ideals
concerning the nature of reality. The world around us is likened to the shadows cast onto the wall of a cave.
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