HoP 025 - Soul and The City - Plato's Po...

The “Quietists” Jeanne Guyon and François Fénelon argue that self-love can be overcome by cultivating a “pure love” for God. Their reward: to be accused of heresy. 

How the “neo-classical” tragedies of Racine explore the battle between passion and reason. 

Molière’s famous comedies scandalize Paris and dramatize themes from French moralism, especially the danger of hypocrisy. 

Is it always better to be just than unjust? That is the central question of Plato's Republic, discussed here by Melvyn Bragg and guests. Writing in c380BC, Plato applied this question both to the individual and the city-state, considering earlier and current forms of government i ... Show More

On this later dialogue presenting Plato's ideas about the character of laws in a just state. They should all be aimed at making people virtuous, and so should include education to this end. Each law should be equipped with a prelude presenting a rational argument for why people s ... Show More

<p>Today we journey into the creation of Plato's Republic. Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. James Romm to discover how Plato's encounters with the tyrant-ruled city of Syracuse and its rulers, Dionysius the Elder and Dionysius the Younger, deeply influenced his philosophical maste ... Show More

In this episode, I recount Socrates and Thrasymachus' debate on Justice from Plato's The Republic. If you want to support me, you can do that with these links: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theoryandphilosophy paypal.me/theoryphilosophy Twitter: @DavidGuignion TikTok: @theoryp ... Show More

A debate on whether citizens follow the law because of their good nature, or because they fear retribution. 

“My cure for Platonism has always been Thucydides.” Nietzsche saw in the first historian of Ancient Greece the will to adhere to realism, and to learn the lessons of the “harsh teacher” of war. Where he sees cowardice in Plato, Nietzsche sees courage in Thucydides, as well as the ... Show More

Continuing on selections from this late Platonic dialogue. Starting in Book 4, Plato's characters are discussing how to create a new state ("Magnesia") from scratch. What sorts of laws should it have? We talk about marriage laws, the nocturnal council, how the law is argued for t ... Show More

In this week's episode, we learn about Plato's "Symposium", which you might think of as philosophy's version of fan fiction. We also learn about Plato's "Theory of Forms" and ask ourselves what makes a tree, well, a tree. This leads to discussion of Plato's famous "Allegory of th ... Show More

Melissa Lane, a classics scholar as well as a philosopher, discusses some key features of Plato's political philosophy and shows its continuing relevance.