Republic
Related
- Plato (c. 375 BCE)
Overview
A dialogue, with Socrates as the main speaker, that begins by asking what justice is and ends by designing a city. Along the way it introduces the theory of forms, the tripartite soul, the philosopher-kings, the noble lie, the allegory of the cave, and a sustained attack on democracy, poetry, and the family. It is the founding text of Western political philosophy and of a great deal of Western philosophy generally.
Notes
I recommend it as a book to argue with. The cave is the best image anyone has produced of what it is like to have a model replaced by a better one, and I use it. The city it builds is a totalitarian nightmare, and the argument for it should be followed step by step precisely so that you can see where it goes wrong. Reading the Republic carefully is a good way to learn that a valid argument from attractive premises can lead somewhere you would not want to live.