Reading Plato’s Republic

Tips for Students Reading and Writing About Philosophical Texts

Jul 18, 2007 Zoe Morawetz

Some practical tips for reading The Republic.

Some tips to keep in mind while reading (or skimming, scanning, perusing, etc.) The Republic:

Don’t get bogged down in the details: Use summaries and study guides if you have to write a quiz-type test about the ‘content’ of the text. If you don’t have to write such a test, don’t worry about remembering the minute details of each section on a first reading.

Avoid superficial criticism: It is absolutely valid to be critical of The Republic and Plato’s ideas, i.e. certain totalitarian tendencies. However there is no use reading the entire book in a snit. Writing an argument along the lines of “I think Plato is a hypocrite because his so-called ‘good’ society includes slaves and therefore The Republic is a useless book that no one should read” is obvious and not very insightful, but most importantly will result in some smartypants academic rejoinder about “context” along the lines of: “In The Republic Plato doesn’t really take a position on the existence of slaves as such but presuppose their social role.”

Essentially, keep in mind that the text is most likely not assigned because someone wants to re-model our society based on specific realities inherent in Greek city-states, classical science or a fifth-century BCE agrarian economy.

Read the text with a ‘hook’ in mind: If you know the topic that you will be writing about, read a summary of the work, and then read the work itself with this topic, or question, in mind – it will be easier to think of a line of argument and then pick out relevant quotes and passages. Likewise, if you are in a course that deals with a specific subject or niche (politics, utopias, ancient science etc.) focus on the sections dealing with that topic.

For instance, Plato’s text is often seen as the inauguration of the argument for the existence of objective reality, the possibility to be absolutely right or wrong, including in the realm of morality, rather than a relativist, subjective reality.

More generally, keep in mind why the ideas found in The Republic are still considered relevant. If you think it’s totally irrelevant, then having a thorough understanding of why all these people – academics, commentators, writers and so on – think it is relevant can only help you when it comes to making your case about why it is not. Just because you’ve read the text doesn’t mean you have to like it.