Republic
by Plato, Benjamin Jowett · first published 2008
27% recommend69% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Socratic dialogue on justice and the structure of the state, valued for its allegory of the cave and its account of how regimes decay. Suits readers wanting a first-hand introduction to philosophy and critical thinking.
Common criticism: Some read its ideal state as totalitarian
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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Meditations - Marcus Aurelius Republic - Plato Laws - Cicero National System of Political Economy - Friedrich List Man and Technics - Oswald Spengler The Bible
on “Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?” ↗…recently read or at least have placed on my reading list. -------------------- Philosohpy Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium - Seneca Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (must read) The Republic - Plato -------------------- History Five Chimneys - Olga Lengyel The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (must read) The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank -------------------- Fiction…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books? I'm bored” ↗…Revenue - Aaron Ross, Marylou Tyler The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand The Ultimate Question 2.0 - Fred Reichheld The Singularity is Near - Ray Kurzweil Moonshot! - John Sculley Zero To One - Peter Thiel Republic - Plato Meditations - Marcus Aurelius Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy, Fred Wiersema…
on “Please recommend a book to read. List for 2015” ↗…Catalonia by George Orwell Manufacturing Consent/Necessary Illusions by Noam Chomsky(Possibly even more relevant today than it's ever been) The Selfish Gene/The Extended Phenotype by Richard Dawkins The Republic by Plato The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions by Kuhn
on “Ask HN: What books fundamentally changed the way you think about the world?” ↗…masterpiece in depth, with secondary academic texts. His list takes too long, and my life is too short to read a bunch of fluff. The books I have studied in depth are: Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche The Republic by Plato A Critique of Pure Reason by Kant The Phenomenology of the Spirit by Hegel Life is so short, read nothing but the cornerstones (this may not be that) of western thought. A great author for…
on “So You Want to Study Philosophy” ↗…for a young startup founder?", I decided to transcribe the answers. . "Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future" - http://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804... "Republic" - http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Hackett-Classics-Plato/dp/087... (classic, feel free to grab a PDF) "The Principia : Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" - http://www.amazon.com/Principia-Mathematical-Principles-Natu...…
on “Sam Altman's Twitter AMA” ↗…few other venues that young people, in their formative years, encounter such examples of deep critical thinking. I used to think it snobbery to reference Socrates/Plato/Aristotle, etc. But reading the Republic, Apology, Ethics, etc. really prompts you to think about your life and how it relates to other in a society in a very meaningful way. It also teaches you to be more critical of all ideas. It seems to…
on “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper (1807)” ↗…Lewis I attend the best "Great Books" program in the country, the Torrey Honors College. Here are the strictly philosophy texts they had us start off with the first semester: Plato's Meno, Symposium, and Republic, and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. You can find the full reading list here: https://www.biola.edu/torrey/academics/reading-list If you want to dig in more, I would encourage you to look into the "Great…
on “Ask HN: Learning about philosophy” ↗…productive for your life? I think it's better to carefully select which books you read, and really get everything that you can out of them. For example, you could read 10 self help books or you could read The Republic and really understand it. And you could probably quickly read 100 self help books and books on leadership in the time it would take you to go through the relevant Plato->Aristotle->Kant->Schopenhauer->Nietzsche…
on “A note on reading big, difficult books” ↗Plato was always cautious of Democracy. If you are interested I would recommend give his "Republic" a read.
on “The British are Googling what the E.U. is, hours after voting to leave it” ↗…end up in charge. As for reading up on the general principles upon which the Western world built its world order, how to know when a war would be just, the collected works of Plato, starting with The Republic, and the stoics would be a good start. I would advise Irvine's Guide to the Good Life as an introduction to the stoics. I would also add Errol Morris's The Fog of War, including McNamara's separate 10…
on “Deep learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio is worried about AI’s future” ↗Economics: - The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith - Das Kapital, Karl Marx - That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen, Frederic Bastiat Philosophy / Politics: - The Republic, Plato - Second Treatise on Government, John Locke - The Law, Frederic Bastiat - Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes - Meditations, Marcus Aurelius - Democracy in America, Alexis de Toqueville - On Liberty,…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?” ↗We are more than half way in the road to serfdom and tyranny. This is a good time to re-read Book 8 of the Republic (Socrates by way of Plato). The current political situation of the world is being decribed as if they were teleported 2000+ years, then went back to write what they saw.
on “U.S. National Security Agencies Said to Swap Data With Thousands of Firms” ↗The Republic - Plato - why societies form the way they do Either/Or - Kierkegaard - as a father of Existentialism his views on society helped put things in perspective for me It's All About Time - John Furey - surprised…
on “Ask HN: What books have made the biggest impact on your mental models?” ↗I heavily recommend the Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Republic, and Phaedrus (in particular) - it’s said all of philosophy is a footnote on Plato until Nietzsche. I think only a summary of Schopenhauer (like a penguin selection or something) is all that’s needed…
on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗