Thomas’s Reviews > The Republic > Status Update

Observations from Book 1

The overall method of delivery is often jarring. Incomplete definitions of a particular subject are presented only to be followed by long reams of questions and qualifications. The “debate” aspect, if you will, often obfuscates the point being made. One thing I loved was the discussion of virtue (arete) as both superior functionality and moral rectitude (ie proper doing and right being).

Plato’s Republic was a work I first picked up during senior year of college for my senior thesis. Regrettably, it became a text that was more picked through for ideas and quotes than one that was read in its entirety for what it was. As I begin an effort to read a broad swath of philosophical authors and self-teach myself the basics of philosophy, I figured that returning here at the onset would be fitting.