Plato; The Republic (English Version) - Norris Book

The Republic is Plato’s best-known work, and there are ways in which it is too famous for its own good. It gives us systematic answers to a whole range of questions about morality, politics, knowledge, and metaphysics, and the book is written in a way designed to sweep the reader along and give a general grasp of the way Plato sees all these questions as hanging together. So our reaction to it, at least on first reading, is likely to be oversimplified; we may feel inclined to accept or reject it as a whole, rather than coming to grips with particular arguments. But the Republic, though written with single-minded intensity, is a work of great complexity. And this is the best reason for studying it in detail. For when we do, we find, with pleasure and profit, that it is a work of great subtlety. Plato is writing a manifesto, but he is too good a philosopher not to raise important and difficult philosophical issues in the process, and sometimes to develop a point at the expense of his declared aims.

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The Republic is in fact a work in which a grandiose plan covers a number of struggles and tensions. The richness of the book can be seen from the very different interpretations that it has produced. Plato has been seen as a revolutionary, a conservative; a fascist, a communist; fiercely practical reformer and an ineffective d reamer. Some of these iilterpretatioris are more fanciful than others, but they all have some footing in the text. A book which gives rise to such extreme disagreements over what it is saying is not a simple and easily comprehended book, however much Plato’s own style of wri ting may try to persuade us that it is.

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Our first response is likely to be simple; it is also likely to be hostile. We are almost all going to find many of Plato’s views unacceptable, even repellent. His ideal society is highly authoritarian. l:lis ideal person is dedicated to a social ideal, and identified with a social role, in a way that we feel denies the importance and interest of the individual. His theories of knowledge and of value conflict with many ofour fundamental assumptions.

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Plato was born in or about 427 BC and died in 347. He belonged to an old and powerful Athenian family and was closely related to some influential political figures of the day.

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Penulis: Plato

Penerbit: Norris Book, 2024

Kategori: Classics

ISBN: 9786230978388

SKU: BRD21534

Bahasa: English

Dimensi: 11,5 x 17,5 cm l Sofcover 

Tebal: 444 hlm l Bookpaper

Harga: 145.000