Don't Fear the Reaper. Week 1: Plato's Republic and The Last Days of Socrates

I'm reading Ted Gioia's "Immersive Humanities Course," 52 weeks of World Classics. We start with Plato! The Last Days of Socrates and excerpts from The Republic.

I'm a beginner at reading the classics, but I've decided to just "crack the book" and get started. Here are a few of my key take-aways from Plato:

1. Human nature just doesn’t change.
2. The distinction between an Idea (maybe think of it as a quality, like Beauty) and the thing that has the beauty (like a beautiful vase, for example) is important.
3. These books covered things I had heard of, like the Theory of Ideas, the Argument from Affinity, and the Theory of Recollection, as well as reflections on the nature of the soul.
4. Book I of The Republic is all about “doing right,” a phrase for a Greek word that is also translated “justice” but incorporates a much bigger and more moral sense than mere legal justice.
5. Finally, the Cave Allegory. I thought it was basically about not seeing things clearly, but learning to see them as they really are. In fact it is much, much more than that.

This is a year-long challenge! Join me next week for Greek Lyric Poetry (the text from Richard Lattimore) and The Odyssey.

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