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Mary Renault, reformulating Plato, beautifully wrote, "What we loath [or love], we graft onto our very soul ... in hatred as in love, we grow like the things we brood upon." This insight was at the core of Plato's educational program. Education in the Republic was aimed not at pouring knowledge into the person but at directing the person toward ofjects worthy of love. [R515c] The youthful assimilation of the attributes of either ordinary objects or worthy objects settles the shape of one's character.
In the last and highest stage of education worthy objects are the Forms. Forms, unlike ordinary objects, are eternal, unchanging, and ordered. Plato understands the discovery of the Forms to be momentous because they are the preeminent good [R504-08] which makes possible the purposeful striving for happiness (eudemonia, life well-lived), without such guidance all striving will be misdirected. [R476c-d] Upon this rock, the Forms, Plato will attempt to build better men and a better society, if not in fact at least in words, man and society not riven with strife and conflict but of eternal stability, in imitation, as he sees it, of the divine order.
Besides the contemplation of right objects, Plato, to widespread consternation,believed it necessary to remove many ordinary objects from the lives if not of all citizens at least from the lives of the guardians. Most controversial was what he call the second wave, where wives, children, and property were to be held in common. This wave of reform was designed to prevent conflict and ensure the unity [R462] of the community by abolishing from the guardians not only possessions, but the feeling of possessiveness. It was hoped that the fellow-feeling found within the family would thereby be shifted to the community.Read more ›
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44 of 44 people found the following review helpful
This is a review of Christopher Rowe's new (2012) translation of Plato's masterpiece, the Republic (ISBN 0141442433). It is not a review of Plato's Republic as such, but solely of the merits and demerits of Rowe's translation.
I've never quite trusted Rowe as an exegete of Plato, as he's got too much of his own personal agenda intrude on his analysis. His joint book with Terry Penner on the Lysis, for instance, falls far short of giving us an unbiased, expansive, authorative commentary on the dialogue, especially when compared to more sober competitors like Michael Bordt's in the Göttingen Plato.
But as a translator, Rowe has proven time and again that he's singularly scrupulous, and attentive to technical detail where it matters. His renderings of Plato's Politicus (Statesman) and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, the latter published with Sarah Broadie, are probably the most authoritative around.
The same can be said for this newest of his translational efforts. In general, translations of the Republic usually err on the side of either trying too heavily to recreate the literary qualities of the original, or miss out so much of that detail because they try to be super exact on technicalities, that in either case the English falls far short of giving us a good understanding of Plato's Greek. The solution, so far, is to read Plato's Republic with (at least) two translations side by side. For instance, on the literal I've found Desmond Lee's quite good, and on the literary, Tom Griffith's stands out. Among the older ones, Paul Shorey's is particularly good on the literary side. Others, like Cornford, Waterfield, or Grube (even when revised under Reeve) can be safely avoided, for having the translators' hobby horses intrude on and mar the main text.Read more ›
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Plato's Republic is of course one of the foundational texts of Western philosophy. It is a dialogue between Socrates and several interlocutors concerning, broadly speaking, the ideal city. Beginning with a discussion of the nature of justice, the dialogue turns into a thought experiment where Socrates builds the ideal city from the ground up. What are the basic needs of the people? Given these basic needs, what kinds of jobs will people in the city have? Given these jobs, what other jobs will citizens have? What kind of protection do the citizens need? How do we ensure that the next generation is adequately prepared for whatever we decide they will need in the future? etc. During the discussion, we see many of the ideas that Plato is known for, such as his theory of the forms via the allegory of the cave. This book is required reading for anyone who wishes to consider himself an educated human being. The ideas in this text have been commented on, expounded upon, refuted, defended, or extended by every philosopher who is worth studying. In particular, as an Aristotelian-Thomist, understanding Plato's views is essential to place in context his student's views.
Although the book as a whole is excellent, there are nevertheless some grave errors. Less well known about Plato is the fact that there are some extremely disturbing ideas put forth in Book V. These ideas include an acceptance of infanticide and "breeding" the best possible humans, the later of which being justified in order to "make marriage as sacred as possible." Some would also argue that the city Plato allocates for is quite socialist or even communist.Read more ›
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