“Plato exhibits the rare union of close and subtle logic with the Pythian enthusiasm of poetry, melted by the splendor and harmony of his periods into one irresistible stream of musical impressions, which hurry the persuasions onward, as in a breathless career…there is scarcely any of his treatises which do not…contain the most remarkable intuitions into all that can be the subject of the human mind.”
– Percy Shelley

Are you interested in learning more about the philosophy of Plato, a tradition so rich, British philosopher A. N. Whitehead once famously mused that, “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato”? Then this course is for you.

The goal of this course is to introduce students to arguably one of Plato’s greatest works, the endlessly fascinating Republic. The course will dive into Plato’s Republic, primarily through reading, discussion, and interwoven with mini-lectures, in order to better understand the major themes and central ideas of this seminal work. We will investigate Plato’s ideas about knowledge, the cosmos, politics, ethics, the nature of reality, beauty, the soul and afterlife, human nature, etc. Other dialogues will be mentioned, but their reading is not necessary.

This course does not require any previous knowledge in philosophy, just an interest in getting to know the massively influential philosophy of Plato as elegantly presented in his Republic.