The Republic By Plato (427 – 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.