Plato's The Republic - Softcover

Plato

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Softcover

ISBN 10: 0394701283 ISBN 13: 9780394701288

Publisher: Vintage, 1955

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Essestially an inquiry into morality, the Republic is the central work of the Western world's most famous philosopher. Containing crucial arguments and insights into many other areas of philosophy, it is also a literary masterpiece: the philosophy is presented for the most part for ordinary readers, who are carried along by the wit and intensity of the dialogue and by Plato's unforgettable images of the human condition. This new, lucid translation is complemented by full explanatory notes and an up-to-date critical introduction.

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Book Description:

In this influential two-volume edition, first published in 1902, the Scottish classicist James Adam examines the text of Plato's monumental political and philosophical dialogue. Volume 2 focuses on Books 6-10, which discuss the place of the philosopher and questions of governance.

From the Back Cover:

This celebrated philosophical work of the fourth century B.C. contemplates the elements of an ideal state, serving as the forerunner for such other classics of political thought as Cicero's De Republica, St. Augustine's City of God, and Thomas More's Utopia.
Written in the form of a dialog in which Socrates questions his students and fellow citizens, The Republic concerns itself chiefly with the question, "What is justice?" as well as Plato's theory of ideas and his conception of the philosopher's role in society. To explore the latter, he invents the allegory of the cave to illustrate his notion that ordinary men are like prisoners in a cave, observing only the shadows of things, while philosophers are those who venture outside the cave and see things as they really are, and whose task it is to return to the cave and tell the truth about what they have seen. This dynamic metaphor expresses at once the eternal conflict between the world of the senses (the cave) and the world of ideas (the world outside the cave), and the philosopher's role as mediator between the two.

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