Description
Plato ranks among the most celebrated philosophers in history. One 20th century thinker, Alfred North Whitehead went so far as to describe Western philosophy as a series of footnotes to Plato. Plato´s Republic in turn is widely regarded as Plato´s greatest and most profound work. Yet, even among professional scholars, the text has proven to be challenging with debates emerging even as to its basic focus. In this course we go through the first five books of Plato´s work one at a time, covering the basic characters and issues of each. Among the issues we will discuss include such fundamental questions as "What is Justice?" and "Why should we be just?" and "What is the good society?". Questions that remain as relevant today as in Plato´s time. We will also endeavor to explain Plato in his own historical context examining issues like the role of poetry and rhetoric in Greek education (παιδεία) and the struggle of Greek culture to define excellence or virtue (ἀρετή). We will look closely at how Plato aims to challenge and reform Greek education by giving it a new center and aim in theology, the ascent of the soul to the divine. We will also look closely at the connections between Plato´s psychological and political ideas, how he thinks examining the justice in the polis can help elucidate the inner cosmos of the human soul.
