Orhan Pelinkovic's Reviews > The Republic

Plato's Republic (c. 375 BCE) is a Socratic dialogue in which Socrates with his interlocutors devise a conceptually ideal State. Socrates is our protagonist who is leading the discussion and is clearly dissatisfied with his government and State's structure and its system of values and justice.

Plato describes an ideal State as one that encourages gender equality, education for all, meritocracy, and is ruled by no other than a philosopher-king. Nevertheless, Plato envisions a Republic that practices eugenics and enforces censorship on unsuitable writings and poems. A State in which the government is entitled to manipulate and deceive the public for the benefit of the State.

Plato describes the four forms of government and their characteristics and how one evolves from the other. Timocracy will end up transforming into an oligarchy, and oligarchy to the best available form of government, democracy. Although, excessive freedom in a democratic state will lead to tyranny. Plato bases and links the various State systems to the character of its people.

But the book has so much more to offer than dialogues on the various types of organized political States and governments.

Plato goes on to define a true philosopher as the one who yearns for knowledge of that which is eternal and unchanging and is not disturbed by things that come to be and decay. A philosopher contemplates the essence of a thing in search of a true understanding as this is the only way to enhance and elevate the soul towards the supreme good. He sees the dialectical method of reasoning as the most effective way to arrive at a truth, while knowledge attained by pure reasoning and logic is superior to the knowledge obtained by sense perception or experiences. Plato perceives the knowledge obtained by our five senses as just copies of the ideal form that only exists and is comprehensible by our intellect. But in order to attain this knowledge, one must first comprehend the abstract science of numbers, arithmetic, and geometry.

Reasoning is presented as the principal human cognitive power, followed by the process of discursive thinking, faith, and our ability to distinguish perceived images from reality. Similarly, our immortal soul's most elevated component is reason, as well, while the urges for honor and sensual pleasures are its lowest parts.

I read the book in my native Montenegrin language and I look forward to a reread in an English translation.