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Experiencing (de)Platonization
Is The Republic the greatest philosophy book of all time?
A non-platonized warning
It has been asserted that all subsequent western philosophy is but a footnote to Plato, a claim that is particularly salient in the context of political philosophy. Alfred Whitehead articulated probably the best summary of Plato’s legacy:
I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them. His personal endowments, his wide opportunities for experience at a great period of civilization, his inheritance of an intellectual tradition not yet stiffened by excessive systematization, have made his writing an inexhaustible mine of suggestion. (, p. 53)
After the impression left by Plato’s Republic, one can definitely say that this classic, ancient read is absolutely worth reading, as are his other dialogues.
Plato is not quite the possessor of the most engaging or lucid prose style, which is why reading him will falter if done in a translation that too closely conveys the excessive intellectual sterility and clumsiness of the original.
