Book · -375
The Republic
by Plato
A student dares Socrates to prove justice pays even with a ring that makes you invisible, and answering him takes nine more books.
What does Reddit think of The Republic?
r/askphilosophy keeps coming back to one framing: the whole book exists to answer a single dare. One answer (↑130) traces it to Adeimantus at 366b, asking why be just if injustice serves just as well. Another (↑46) points to the same challenge through Glaucon and the Ring of Gyges, the version most people actually remember. Both threads treat that question, not the city Socrates builds to answer it, as the real subject. That city gets misread constantly: one reply (↑42) corrects someone who took the 'city-in-speech' as a literal political blueprint instead of a paradigm for the public good. Two separate askphilosophy starter-list answers (↑58, ↑52) put the Republic alongside Nicomachean Ethics, Augustine's Confessions, and Pascal's Pensees, adding that modern translations read easier than the book's reputation suggests. r/Stoicism's presence here is thinner and more tangential, built around a Marcus Aurelius quote rather than the dialogue itself.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · justice as its own reward, argued from scratch
- · the Ring of Gyges thought experiment
- · the city as a metaphor for the soul
- · Plato as the default starter-philosophy text
Common praise
- + The Ring of Gyges framing gives you an actual hook before ten books of city-building start.
- + Modern translations get called easier to read than the book's reputation suggests, straight from an askphilosophy recommendation thread.
- + It keeps landing on starter-philosophy lists next to Aristotle and Augustine instead of getting waved off as too old to bother with.
Common criticism
- − People keep misreading the city-in-speech as an actual political proposal, which one thread has to correct directly.
- − The book's central question gets attributed to two different characters across different threads, and neither answer reconciles it with the other.
- − r/Stoicism's mentions barely engage with the dialogue itself, leaning on a Marcus Aurelius line instead.
Who it's for
Start here if you want the 'why be good' question in its original form, before a hundred self-help books diluted it. Compare it to picking up Nicomachean Ethics or Augustine's Confessions cold: askphilosophy treats all three as reasonable first stops, and this one comes with a friendlier translation than its reputation implies. If you're expecting a straightforward political manifesto, the city-in-speech will confuse you until you catch that it's an analogy, not a proposal. Readers coming from Marcus Aurelius get less direct overlap here than they might assume.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for The Republic?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“There is a really incredible passage from Plato's Republic that deals with this exact thing. Starting at 366b or so. The republic is really all about this single question. Adeimantus (strongly) asks "why be just/good if I justice serves just as well?" After another character in the republic gave …
“In Book 1 of Plato's Republic, the character Cephalus talks about how old age allows him to be free of certain desires that are popular amongst the youth. This includes partying, drinking, and other forms of fun pleasure. Many others, however, still feel desire and an anxiety to pursue these pleasur…
“I have to recommend Miguel de Unamuno's The Tragic Sense of Life. He's funky and not at all a starter philosopher but he is apparently very beautiful and poetic in the original Spanish. Otherwise, Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Augustine's Confessions, Blaise Pascal's Pensees, D…
“I would not personally start with Sartre. He is an important and interesting author. But, out of the stuff you have listed, him and Heidegger prpbably have the steepest learning curve and require a LOT of context. Plato's republic is an excellent read and most modern translations are quite accesib…
“The basic question "Why be good or just?" was raised in Plato's Republic. I recommend looking up Glaucon and the Ring of Gyges to find how this question was originally posed. It's pretty common in philosophy to make reference back to this discussion in framing their issues. With respect to giving …
“"If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it." Marcus Aurelius...and yet the Stoics while actually in power, made all sorts of pragmatic, outcome oriented decisions (see: Seneca). Cato refused to bend or compromise and it, in part, contributed to Rome's Civil War. A generation l…
“I think you are completely misreading the Republic. Without going into too much detail, the city-in-speech is a city that is organized entirely with a view to the public good, as opposed to the private. It is intended to serve as a paradigm for the public good. As such, it reveals the primary sou…
“If you're interested in reading a novel that provides an introduction to philosophy you can try *Sophie's World*-- the book is sort of aimed at your age group. A good choice for an introduction for a general reader might be Julian Baggini's *The Pig that Wants to be Eaten*. Another one might be som…
“Ancient Greece was a cruel, violent place. Yet also, the Golden Age of Athens is marked by an extraordinary density of geniuses, innovation, and flourishing culture. This video explores the far-going violence so present in Greek life through the lenses of the Riace Bronzes, Aeschylus, Plato's Repub…
“I'm not entirely sure you're going about it the right way. Philosophy doesn't have the power to compel you into thinking a particular way, and very few arguments have the force that you're looking for. Robert Nozick once poignantly said: >Though philosophy is carried on as a coercive activity, the …
“>Never call yourself a philosopher, and don't talk among laymen for the most part about philosophical principles, but act in accordance with those principles. At a banquet, for example, don't talk about how one ought to eat, but eat as one ought. Remember how Socrates so completely renounced all out…
“> Feminism's fundamentals are Christian. > the basis of Feminism is Christian These are different things, and we should realize there's also difference between - > Feminism's fundamentals are Christian. > (Some of) Feminism's fundamentals are compatible with or overlap with Christian fundamen…
“One of the prerequisites of living life is maintenance. All creatures have some form of it- humanity is no exception. Consider this maintenance as part of the reason you were born, one of the things that the Stoics would have said the gods put before you as a practice ground for virtue. It may be st…
“>Plato's Republic surely strikes many people in the modern world as weird and authoritarian. Just to be clear, it struck people back then as weird and authoritarian too. If you read the dialogue, it's almost funny how often Socrates pauses before making a claim to say something like "listen, peopl…
“Historically speaking, philosophy tends to be a discipline out of which new disciplines spring. Philosophical thinking provides a new set of questions, and then when a reliable method is developed for answering some of those questions, that method stops being "philosophy" and becomes a field of its …
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What else does r/askphilosophy read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
Guides featuring The Republic
Ranked best-of lists and editorial guides where this book's tracked mentions place it.
The Republic — frequently asked
Is Plato's Republic a good place to start reading philosophy?+
Yes, according to multiple r/askphilosophy starter-list answers. Two separate threads (↑58, ↑52) recommend it alongside Nicomachean Ethics, Augustine's Confessions, and Pascal's Pensees, with one noting that modern translations are 'quite accessible' despite the book's reputation for difficulty.
What is the actual question Plato's Republic is trying to answer?+
Why be just if injustice pays just as well. One answer (↑130) traces this to Adeimantus at Book II, line 366b. Another (↑46) frames the identical challenge through Glaucon and the Ring of Gyges, the more commonly cited version. Both agree the entire dialogue exists to answer that dare.
Is the city in Plato's Republic meant to be a real political system?+
No, and one r/askphilosophy reply (↑42) says so directly, correcting a reader who took the 'city-in-speech' as a literal blueprint. It's described there as a paradigm built to reveal something about the public good, not a system meant to be built.
Why does Plato's Republic show up in r/Stoicism if it's not a Stoic text?+
Mostly tangentially. The displayed r/Stoicism excerpt (↑44) uses a Marcus Aurelius line as its anchor and only touches the Republic in passing while discussing Stoic figures like Cato and Seneca, not the dialogue's own arguments.