– 347 B.C.) Essay, Research Paper
The Republic is one of the foundational
writings of Western philosophy and civilization. We see Platonic thought
and Socratic methodology still vitally evolving in today’s world. Dialectic
questioning is the basis of Marxism and many other schools of philosophy.
Indeed, the question-and-answer method plays an expansive role in our legal,
scientific and educational systems. Moreover, Plato’s views concerning
the nature of humankind – his notion of “mind over matter” in the individual
soul – is a cornerstone of Christianity. The arguments and ideas of The
Republic have had a profound influence on all the dialectic swings within
our social, political, and religious quests and thinking since they were
first written down in Athens twenty-five hundred years ago.