Book Review: The Republic

 

The Republic is a book originally published around 401, based on the writings of Plato and the teachings of Socrates (whom Plato studied under earlier in his life). In it, Plato presents Socrates' idea of what makes for a perfect state/civilization/ republic, and the ideal traits of its people, especially its leaders. It is written as a long conversation and debate between Plato (writing as Socrates) and different philosophers. It is divided into ten different books/chapters, each exploring a different topic. I have the leather-bound Easton Press edition. This version was translated from Greek by Benjamin Jowett and first published in the 1980s. 

The book is just over 620 pages long. Before each book/chapter, there is a summary and analysis of the upcoming book that distills the content of that chapter, and after Book 10, there is a summary and conclusion that attempts to tie everything together. Unfortunately, those are not much easier to read than the chapters themselves; aside from the end-of-the-book summary, they do not really put the concepts into plain, modern-day English. However, in the margins of the text of the "books," there are annotations that explain some of the things being said by the characters. 

The book is a bit of a slog to get through. Of course, the text is translated from ancient Greek, which does not make it an easy read to begin with. Making it harder is that, while before each conversation (or shift in conversation), the speakers are identified, at least in my version, it is not always clear who is speaking at any given time. Generally, each new line or paragraph is spoken by a different person, but it would have been more helpful if it had been written like the script for a play, so you can easily identify when speakers change. The book is an interesting read (some of the discussion of tyrants and oligarchs remains very relevant), but it can be easy to drift off and lose focus while reading. Ultimately, it is not a book I would re-read many times, but if you are interested in philosophy and debate, it is worth checking out.