Plato’s Republic

Part of The Great Books series

STREAMING VIDEO
2 Class Sessions

It is the book that every educated person was expected to have read. Though in recent years it has been pushed aside in university curricula in favor of woke literature, Plato’s Republic remains the most influential work of philosophy in the history of Western civilization. First-time readers of the text are often amazed at how much of their culture they see being created in the series of dialogues between the character of Socrates and his interlocutors. Anyone raised in the West will recognize in the text many of the central precepts of their world.

Written around 380 BC, The Republic raises and offers answers to all the major questions we debate today: What is justice? Is freedom good? Should the people rule? Is the individual more important than the community? What is the function of art? Is greed bad? How should we educate the youth? Is there a universal moral code? What is truth and how do we find it?

In this 2-part live interactive webinar that is the first course in The Great Books series we do a close reading and analysis of this monumental work of philosophy, using the Hackett Classics edition, translated by G.M.S. Grube.

To access this streaming video course, you may purchase it individually for $65 or join Unregistered Academy.