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book~380 BCE

Republic

Disciplines:
political philosophy
ethics
metaphysics
plato

Summary

Plato's masterwork — a dialogue in which Socrates and interlocutors investigate the nature of justice, concluding that justice in the city (philosopher-kings ruling warriors and producers) mirrors justice in the soul (reason ruling spirit and appetite) — while developing the theory of Forms, the allegory of the Cave, and the ideal city.

Core Contribution

Creates the model for philosophical politics — philosopher-kings rule because they know the Form of the Good, which ordinary people cannot perceive — while the allegory of the Cave makes philosophy's task the liberation of consciousness from opinion to knowledge, from the shadows to the sun.

Historical Influences

Plato

Intellectual Lineage

Plato Research Socratic dialogues Greek city-state

Allied Works

Laws Phenomenology of Spirit Nicomachean Ethics

Contemporaries & Peers

Symposium Phaedo

Minds Influenced

Western political philosophyEducation theory Utopian political thinkingJonathan Bi

Intellectual Posterity

Allegory of the Cave Philosopher-king The Republic Tripartite soulThe Form of the Good

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Republic

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