Posted on 09/02/08
Strictly Platonic
Western philosophy has famously been described as a series of footnotes to Plato. The Republic, his masterpiece, written around 375 BC, is as relevant today as it was then.In the voice of his teacher, Socrates, Plato tells us that what is at stake is how we are to live. Concretely, this comes out in his confrontations with two kinds of opponent. One is represented by complacent, conventional "men of business." The other is the doctrine that might is right, that wisdom consists in being the dog that eats rather than the dog that is eaten, a view represented by the cynical, sarcastic Thrasymachus.
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