Klowey’s Reviews > The Republic of Plato > Status Update
Klowey
is 50% done
Finished commentary on Book V
Fabulous explanation by Bloom of how the key discussion is about:
- Socrates' and all citizens' private lives vs. the ideal city and the elimination of the private
- poetry vs philosophy
- ideal forms vs. individual examples
- justice as natural vs perfect city as art, thus art winning over nature and man
Starting Book VI
— Jan 30, 2026 10:19PM
Fabulous explanation by Bloom of how the key discussion is about:
- Socrates' and all citizens' private lives vs. the ideal city and the elimination of the private
- poetry vs philosophy
- ideal forms vs. individual examples
- justice as natural vs perfect city as art, thus art winning over nature and man
Starting Book VI
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Klowey’s Previous Updates
Klowey
is 95% done
Finished Book 10:
Socrates criticizes imitative, tragic or comic, Homeric poetry. warns that dramatic poetry feeds irrational, emotional mind & breaks down self-control. outlines new poetry that supports the philosophic life. He gives the principle Aristotle developed in the Poetics, which is embodied in the works of Dante & Shakespeare. It is still poetry, but poetry which points beyond itself.
— 10 hours, 55 min ago
Socrates criticizes imitative, tragic or comic, Homeric poetry. warns that dramatic poetry feeds irrational, emotional mind & breaks down self-control. outlines new poetry that supports the philosophic life. He gives the principle Aristotle developed in the Poetics, which is embodied in the works of Dante & Shakespeare. It is still poetry, but poetry which points beyond itself.
Klowey
is 90% done
Summary of Book 9:
just person is happier than unjust person who spends his money, deceives, steals, lives in constant fear, poverty, and misery.
Only philosopher experiences all 3 kinds of pleasure (profit, honor, truth) ; knows the nature of true reality, soqualified to judge which life is best.
Pleasures (reason, truth) are real & stable; appetitive pleasures of unjust are illusory and never truly satisfy.
— 19 hours, 28 min ago
just person is happier than unjust person who spends his money, deceives, steals, lives in constant fear, poverty, and misery.
Only philosopher experiences all 3 kinds of pleasure (profit, honor, truth) ; knows the nature of true reality, soqualified to judge which life is best.
Pleasures (reason, truth) are real & stable; appetitive pleasures of unjust are illusory and never truly satisfy.
Klowey
is 80% done
Finished Book 8 & commentary.
Focuses on the 4 flawed regimes. Socrates describes a chain of decline starting from aristocracy:
Aristocracy → timocracy (due to failures in breeding guardians).
Timocracy → oligarchy (as rulers prioritize wealth over honor).
Oligarchy → democracy (when the poor revolt against wealth-based rule).
Democracy → tyranny (when a "champion of the people" seizes power).
— Apr 21, 2026 02:13AM
Focuses on the 4 flawed regimes. Socrates describes a chain of decline starting from aristocracy:
Aristocracy → timocracy (due to failures in breeding guardians).
Timocracy → oligarchy (as rulers prioritize wealth over honor).
Oligarchy → democracy (when the poor revolt against wealth-based rule).
Democracy → tyranny (when a "champion of the people" seizes power).
Klowey
is 70% done
Finished Book VII and commentary by Bloom.
This was the turning point Book for me after reading Bloom's commentary.
— Mar 04, 2026 02:34AM
This was the turning point Book for me after reading Bloom's commentary.
Klowey
is 60% done
Finished Book 6:
shifts from the city's structure to epistemology and metaphysics, explaining why only philosophers grasp true justice. Introducing key ideas about knowledge, reality, the Form of the Good (vs fleeting opinions, pleasures), Philosopher-kings, and the divided line analogy (hierarchy of reality & knowledge imagining a line divided unequally into visible and intelligible realms, each further subdivided.
— Feb 25, 2026 09:36PM
shifts from the city's structure to epistemology and metaphysics, explaining why only philosophers grasp true justice. Introducing key ideas about knowledge, reality, the Form of the Good (vs fleeting opinions, pleasures), Philosopher-kings, and the divided line analogy (hierarchy of reality & knowledge imagining a line divided unequally into visible and intelligible realms, each further subdivided.
Klowey
is 40% done
Book 5 has a sudden turn into epistemology and metaphysics: Socrates is trying to define the philosopher and explain why only philosophers can rule, and the language gets very abstract, with talk about “being vs. becoming,” “knowledge vs. opinion,” and the “love of the Forms”. In Bloom’s translation, this shift can feel especially abrupt, because he preserves Plato’s literal, dense phrasing without smoothing it out.
— Jan 30, 2026 05:35AM
Klowey
is 40% done
Finished Book 4 commentary (419c-427c), (427c-445e)
Seems to question the city vs the individual, the start of Socrates' trial.
This is the most intriguing book so far. Need to reread.
— Jan 23, 2026 01:20AM
Seems to question the city vs the individual, the start of Socrates' trial.
This is the most intriguing book so far. Need to reread.
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Cynda Reads
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Jan 30, 2026 11:59PM
Klowey, I had major surgery that I did realize was so major, so I struggling to catch up with all my reading. I am so sorry. I hope we will catch up again another time. . . . .Such good progress in your part. Keep on!
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Cynda wrote: "Klowey, I had major surgery that I did realize was so major, so I struggling to catch up with all my reading. I am so sorry. I hope we will catch up again another time. . . . .Such good progress in..."Take your time, rest and heal. I completely understand. I've had health issues hit me several times in the middle of buddy reads and felt like I let people down. I expect to be participating in the discussion for months, if not all year. I have The Republic on my reading task list for Jan through Dec 2026.
This is an intense read with sometimes overwhelming ideas to sit and ponder. As I mentioned, I listen to the Sugrue lectures on youtube first (they aren't long but give an insightful summary), then read a "Book," then read the Allan Bloom commentary at the end of the book for that "Book," then comment on discuss. For me, Bloom is indispensable for my understanding. Some of the challenge is the time and place when it was written, so long ago. The language via Bloom's translation is meant to retain much of the original, which can sometimes be hard to decipher. And while the questions we have may be the same, the context differs, so the comments on the discussion about history, etc. have been helpful.
Thank you Klowey. You have understood well. This too shall pass, and soon I will read Plato too. I have the Alan Bloom book and have started the Sugrue lectures which gave me much of what I needed to get the start I made. I will restart as soon as I have the mental clarity again. Soon it will be the 2-week mark after the last narcotic pill when the mental fog lifts. We'll see each other's posts soon. :)
