omelas33's review against another edition
5.0
Yes, I finished this masterpiece by The Master himself.. Plato is by no means perfect but he sets the stage and questions everything and everyone.. I used couple of other books to understand him better and there was this quote “the rest of philosophy is footnotes to Plato’s work” and I agree.. he set the wheels of thought turning.. he stood in front of the crowd and asked all the seemingly absurd and “wrong” questions of the time. And you’ve to give it to him, he is still relevant.. I would suggest go with the translation by Benjamin Jowett, it is really comprehensive and archaic at the same time.
theoakden's review against another edition
5.0
Plato's ideas are still relevant and easy to access today and the Republic is a book you will continue to think about for the rest of you life.
binstonbirchill's review against another edition
5.0
First of all, that was intense, not in a mortal combat sort of way but in a oh-my-god I gotta concentrate because one thing rolls into the next and there is literally no breaks the entire way through. It's a 310 page back and forth (mostly forth) discussion that results in the setting up of a Utopian city. Now like all Utopias, it could also be considered someone else's Dystopia but we'll leave that alone in this review. The introduction states that The Republic was the book that took civilization from the world of Homer to the world we live in today, the evidence supporting that statement becomes clearer and clearer as the argument builds the city to it's eventual conclusion. The last seven pages are like a smack in the face, quite easily the best ending to any book I've ever read.
A few interesting tidbits:
The Ring of Gyges: Lord of the Rings fans will see similarities.
Platonic love: the idea is directly from a passage in this book.
Plato is, at times, absolutely hilarious. His use of "Apparently. Probably. It looks like it." are majestic.
While there were one or two passages that I found incomprehensible (surely a deficiency in the reader) on the whole this book is very approachable, but you do have to keep your attention on the book otherwise you'll lose the thread or web or whatever. I would suggest reading the Iliad before reading this as there are quite a few references to Homer.
Other good primers, in no particular order, would be:
Aeschylus: (oft referenced Tragedian, The Oresteia is spectacular)
The Odyssey: (but of lesser direct relation to The Republic than The Iliad)
Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War (for an understanding of Greek geography and brilliant speeches)
Herodotus: The Histories (An introduction to the whole of the ancient world of the Greeks)
Hesiod: I've not read his surviving works yet but he's referenced a lot in The Republic.
A few interesting tidbits:
The Ring of Gyges: Lord of the Rings fans will see similarities.
Platonic love: the idea is directly from a passage in this book.
Plato is, at times, absolutely hilarious. His use of "Apparently. Probably. It looks like it." are majestic.
While there were one or two passages that I found incomprehensible (surely a deficiency in the reader) on the whole this book is very approachable, but you do have to keep your attention on the book otherwise you'll lose the thread or web or whatever. I would suggest reading the Iliad before reading this as there are quite a few references to Homer.
Other good primers, in no particular order, would be:
Aeschylus: (oft referenced Tragedian, The Oresteia is spectacular)
The Odyssey: (but of lesser direct relation to The Republic than The Iliad)
Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War (for an understanding of Greek geography and brilliant speeches)
Herodotus: The Histories (An introduction to the whole of the ancient world of the Greeks)
Hesiod: I've not read his surviving works yet but he's referenced a lot in The Republic.
charzardinho's review against another edition
I kind of wanted to murder Socrates.
nyctose's review against another edition
As a non-philosophy student I don't think I'm qualified to rate this. Many of the arguments did indeed go over the top of my head. As a science student my thought process throughout the book was But wait you cannot prove this! So how can you come to this conclusion?
However what I did get from this book is learning about a new way of thinking, arguing and questioning that is unique to philosophers and philosophy.
Many of the arguments in this book for justice, society and humanity may not hold by today's standards but I am quite impressed at the detailed and diverse arguments these philosophers of old put forward. It definitely is a thought-provoking read.
Although I must admit the society Socrates is imagining sounds undoubtedly scary and not unlike the dystopian worlds in today's YA books. It's funny how dystopia (believed to be utopia) was a thing even back then in the BCs
However what I did get from this book is learning about a new way of thinking, arguing and questioning that is unique to philosophers and philosophy.
Many of the arguments in this book for justice, society and humanity may not hold by today's standards but I am quite impressed at the detailed and diverse arguments these philosophers of old put forward. It definitely is a thought-provoking read.
Although I must admit the society Socrates is imagining sounds undoubtedly scary and not unlike the dystopian worlds in today's YA books. It's funny how dystopia (believed to be utopia) was a thing even back then in the BCs
ostrava's review against another edition
3.0
I knew what I was getting myself into, but Plato's hypothetical paradise is more akin to expecting things to run on the clock based on some weird "uncontaminated perfect-thought" system for all members of society, rather than leaving a solid base for all individuals to thrive in.
Now, I wasn't expecting a class in agronomy, but it can't be as easy as massive brainwash, can it? we literally live connected to phones 24/7 and everyone still hates each other and is miserable all the time (this could not be by default, right???). OK, in fairness, Plato also proposes eugenics. And sparkling monarchism (an intellectual variation).
.. Maybe they haven't thought this through as much as they believed. Waiting impatiently for Plato to drop the second part to address these issues.
Small update: finished the other half I didn't read. Stuff here and there that was good obviously, but not what I needed right now...
Now, I wasn't expecting a class in agronomy, but it can't be as easy as massive brainwash, can it? we literally live connected to phones 24/7 and everyone still hates each other and is miserable all the time (this could not be by default, right???). OK, in fairness, Plato also proposes eugenics. And sparkling monarchism (an intellectual variation).
.. Maybe they haven't thought this through as much as they believed. Waiting impatiently for Plato to drop the second part to address these issues.
Small update: finished the other half I didn't read. Stuff here and there that was good obviously, but not what I needed right now...
rosekk's review against another edition
4.0
I've read this book (or sections of it) every year for the past five years. It's amazing how much there is to find in it.