理想国书评

As is generally known, ancient Greece is the cradle of philosophy ideas, where many famous philosophers are born and put forward quite a few advanced ideas. Among the masterpieces written by ancient Greece philosophers, one of the most notable books is The Republic, which was written by Plato. This book is the essence of Plato’s thinking and ideas, involving politics, education, ethics and philosophy.   The most significant factor that contribute to the success of this book is the discussion of how to construct an ideal country. Set in the background of ancient Greece, this book conveys its ideas to readers through the discourse between Socrates and other people. In the first half part of this book, Plato spend lots of time to explain the concept of justice and how to cultivate such morality in citizens. In the rest of this book, the author specifically discusses what the political system should be and how to cultivate capable politicians in a country. All in all, the author shares a hope that the country can be built and ruled in an appropriate way.   To acquire a better understanding of ideas involved in this book, we have a need to learn the background of creation of this book as well as the author’s experience. Plato, born in Athens in 427 BC, was the most renowned philosophers in western countries. As a student of Socrates, Plato has developed his own insight into the government of a country. He was brought up in an aristocrat family, which was considered as a reason for his political ideas. In 399 BC, a significant accident took place that his teacher, Socrates, was trialed in the public and was sentenced to death. Such accident led to Plato’s complete disappointment toward current regime, which encouraged him to take on journey in western countries. During the journey, he absorbed the ideas from many famous people such as Hema and condensed his ideas in The Republic.   In this book, the author mentions the concept of ‘cave’, which was a literary metaphor of Plato’s political aspiration. However, this was not just a simple literary metaphor; it’s more like an indication to the real life at that time. What may conclude the essence of this book is that the author strongly disapproved the point: justice is the benefits of the rulers. He stuck to the point that the justice should be the benefits of every citizens in a country. Meanwhile, justice is also the synthesis of wisdom, braveness and thrifty.   Nowadays, many people pose a question toward this masterpiece: are these theories appropriate for today’s government. I think the answer is absolutely “no”. First of all, our current government is completely different from the previous one, which means that we could not simply use the previous methods. Another point is that Plato was born in a aristocratic family, which to some extent led to his prejudice toward democratic regime. However, we can still benefit from Plato’s ideas in this book and some of those thinking really give us another revolutionary perspective about some current political issues.