Topics Philosophers

Question I'm currently reading Plato's Republic, I'm about half way through the 4th book at the moment. My problem is that generally I find that it seems to be more of a historical relection of ancient Greece than a philosophical one. So my question is, are the dialogues of Plato still of philosophical relevance today? And if so should someone with no formal training in philosophy approach them, without discarding the vast majority of the content as irrelevant?

Accepted:
December 3, 2009

Comments

Stick with it. When I first read the Republic, I initially shared your disappointment -- it just didn't seem to live up to its reputation. The first couple of books in particular struck me as deathly dull: but I found that it did gradually pick up as it went along. In the later books, although there is still plenty there that is merely a reflection of its own era with no real resonance today, there's also a great deal that still effervesces with striking insights that can readily be applied to the modern world. The famous allegory of the cave in book seven is certainly well worth pondering if one has never had occasion to look at things in quite that way before. And more interesting still (I'd suggest) are the political discussions, many of which really do come across as if they were being written about this very decade.

For instance, Plato is at pains to stress the proximity of oligarchy (i.e. government by the wealthiest), democracy and tyranny, and how one of these regimes can all-too-easily become corrupted into another. (At the risk of offending any George Bush fans who might be looking in, I'd be inclined to regard Bush as the paradigm of someone who neatly encapsulates elements of all three). Plato also highlights the nature of political spin, and he introduces the notion of the 'noble lie'. The latter actually did already come up in book three, but perhaps you missed it. The idea was that it would be useful to the state to conjure up a fiction that might be believed, ideally by the leaders themselves but certainly by the population, so as to make the latter more docile and willing to go along with government policy. Think: weapons of mass destruction. (And there is a link here: the notion of the noble lie was taken up by the political philosopher and Plato scholar, Leo Strauss, and he was in some ways the father of modern Neoconservatism). Anyway, I could go on, but I shouldn't wish to spoil it for you.

As for Plato's works more generally, and whether they are still of philosophical relevance today, it's going to vary from case to case. For instance, as interesting as it is as an historical document, I doubt that many people nowadays would find much to cling to in Timaeus, Plato's account of the creation of the world. Still less are contemporary philosophers going to find anything of interest in Critias, his fanciful description of the lost island of Atlantis. But other dialogues, such as Theaetetus (on the analysis of knowledge) or Philebus (which is better: pleasure or intelligence?), do still offer plenty of grist for the philosophical mill.