Plato's Republic

Product Description In book form, Plato’s Republic is widely considered to be the single most significant work in Western philosophy. In creating this dramatized edition, we consider Plato to be a teacher who wrote in the dialogue form as a means of challenging his students to think deeply about how to live the best possible life. Consider this hypothesis: Plato wrote each book of The Republic to be performed by actors playing the characters of Socrates, Glaucon, Adeimantus, Thrasymachus, and the others. When Book One was performed, he then invited his students—the brightest and best young people in Athens—to respond to each and every argument, issue, and question posed by the characters. Rather than passively listening, they were lured into the process and challenged to evaluate and improve on the ideas presented in the performance. Based on their responses, Plato then wrote Book Two. The same process was repeated, and Book Three was generated. In this way all ten books evolved as part of a dynamic and creative dialectic intended to take place in the souls of each and every participant—including Plato himself. That would also mean that the work is not yet finished, because each new participant joins in the ongoing process of interpretation and evaluation. In that way Plato’s ideas are inscribed in the medium of the soul, which continues to live. Agora Publications, Inc. invites you to join in this same drama that has been playing for more than 2400 years. From the Publisher Our company specializes in dramatized versions of unabridged texts on audio CD and in paperback. They bring primary works to life, especially when they have been translated from another language. For that reason, we develop new versions that are simultaneously faithful to the spirit of the original and intelligible to the general reader. We began with Plato’s dialogues, assuming that Plato himself intended these works to be performed, not as the end but the beginning of a dialectical process that lies at the heart of philosophy. We are producing a series of performances in which professionally trained actors play characters such as Socrates, Gorgias, Glaucon, Thrasymachus, and Ion. We find that they help the listener understand the importance of the ideas and concepts more quickly and deeply. The audio performances also make it easier to discuss the issues the dialogues pose and to appreciate their relevance to our own life. About the Author The Greek philosopher Plato was born in Athens in 428 B.C. He created dramatic dialogues, probably intended for oral performance, but seldom presented in that format until Agora Publications launched this series of dramatizations in 1994.