{"id":1819,"date":"2020-08-31T14:21:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T14:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/dcc\/?p=1819"},"modified":"2020-08-31T14:21:28","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T14:21:28","slug":"things-that-drive-me-crazy-about-platos-republic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/dcc\/2020\/08\/31\/things-that-drive-me-crazy-about-platos-republic\/","title":{"rendered":"Things That Drive Me Crazy about Plato’s Republic"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a few minutes I have to teach Plato’s Republic<\/em> (Books 2 and 4) to a wonderful group of first-year students in a writing-based seminar. I dread this. Every time I teach this seminar, I struggle to find something valuable to justify its inclusion in the syllabus with so many great writers, from Homer and Thucydides to Achebe and Du Bois. Every year I investigate how other people teach it. Steven B. Smith’s discussion in Yale Open Courses<\/a> is available as a free podcast. I find it infuriating, the special pleading, and assertion of the life-changing greatness of the work despite the turgid appearances. The star-studded cast assembled by Melvyn Bragg for BBC’s In Our Time<\/a> plump for it during the entire program, then end up in the bonus material admitting that his psychology is bogus. I feel like there are not enough people out there just complaining about the Republic, and making this list was cathartic for me. I make absolutely no claim to philosophical insight or subtlety, quite the opposite. I just had to get this off my chest. With that defensive preamble, here is my list of<\/p>\n

Things that drive me crazy about the Republic<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The narrowness of his political vision. No mention of the successful Persian model of a multi-ethnic empire next door.<\/li>\n
  2. The assumption that most people should not and cannot exercise political leadership or know what is best for them.<\/li>\n
  3. The exile of Homer. If you can’t see that Homer is humanizing, then something is wrong with you. His view of art as epistemically inferior seems absolutely outrageous.<\/li>\n
  4. The assertion that justice involves above all everybody knowing their place and not meddling, staying in their classes or lanes.<\/li>\n
  5. The idea that only the educated can have moderation (\u03c3\u03c9\u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03cd\u03bd\u03b7) required for leadership.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    On the other hand <\/strong>(and here’s what I find valuable in the work) he does ask some fundamental questions:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. How can we create a concept of justice that is separate from what those in power happened to want to enforce?<\/li>\n
    2. How do we get beyond a politics based simply on desire and force? I want this, you want that, let\u2019s see who\u2019s strong enough to enforce his will.<\/li>\n
    3. What would it look like if reason-driven people, non-self-interested people, ruled and tried to bring about the maximum happiness for the whole?<\/li>\n
    4. What are the psychological sources of political failure and corruption?<\/li>\n
    5. What is the best kind of education for the elite?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Ok, that’s a non-philosopher’s two cents. If you love the work, please tell me why in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      In a few minutes I have to teach Plato’s Republic (Books 2 and 4) to a wonderful group of first-year students in a writing-based seminar. I dread this. Every time I teach this seminar, I struggle to find something valuable … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[153101],"class_list":["post-1819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-platos-republic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/dcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/dcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/dcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/dcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/dcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/dcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/dcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/dcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/dcc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}