The Republic~ Your opinion?

[K i n g X u m o t - XVI]

How did you like this book? (yes, the one from Plato)

[Duragraha]

I have to admit, I was surprised at how often I would find myself using this book outside of the political science department. It comes up almost weekly in my Continental Literature class.

[charbookwyrm]

I thought it was pretty interesting - classical philosophy comes up a lot in some of my uni modules, so it was definitely useful to have read. The man in the cave is also a wonderful analogy.

You know, I'd quite like it if the Dialogue was brought back into modern teaching. It's more interesting than your average school textbook!

[Eveille]

I read the cave when I was in 7th grade at the age of 12 and had the teacher go over it and over it for a good week.

Was assigned the Republic in univ when I was like 21 I think. Couldn't read it, I don't know if it was the translation or the content, but I really couldn't get myself past the first page :/ .

I am not very big into philosophy lol, that may be my issue with him. I like hearing about his life and what he taught, I just don't like actually reading what he wrote and analyzing his ideas. I'd rather learn about where he lived, what he ate, who he dated, who he affected politically and such and the effects of his ideas....instead of the ideas themselves @_@.

That sounded strange, but there you have it: history/archaeology > philosophy.

[sketchedexistence]

Just had to read a fair amount of Plato for a basic texts class. eek It was definitely interesting, but I was having a hard time fully grasping everything I was reading, since we were having to churn through it fairly quickly. I felt like the dialogue was going in circles at times, though the conversation between Socrates and Diotima was intriguing (which was The Symposium, now that I think about it. Sorry about that. We read a fragment of the Republic, The Symposium, and Phaedo.) The cave was an intriguing analogy. I would definitely like to go back and take my time perusing it, to see if I can grasp the concepts more fully.

[A.D.1492]

K i n g X u m o t - XVI

How did you like this book? (yes, the one from Plato)

As an artist, I can never agree with some of his ideas, no matter how much thought he put into them or how well they fit into his own world of thought.

It is inevitable that a well planned utopia has elements of dystopia. In a perfect city-state, there is no place for those who want to be more than what Plato allows them to be.