Book description
Plato is perhaps the most significant philosopher who has ever
lived and The Republic, composed in Athens in about 375BC, is widely
regarded as his most famous dialogue. Its discussion of the perfect
city - and the perfect mind - laid the foundations for Western culture
and, for over two thousand years, has been the cornerstone of Western
philosophy. In this book, Simon Blackburn explains the judicial, moral
and political ideas in the Republic and examines its influence on the
modern world. He shows why, from St Augustine to twentieth-century
philosophers such as Whitehead and Bergson, Western thought is still
conditioned by this most important of books.
Simon Blackburn is professor of philosophy at the University of
Cambridge. He is the author of Think, Truth and the Oxford Dictionary
of Philosophy.
