Plato's Republic
10 Lectures Masterclass
Plato’s Republic is one of the most foundational texts of Western philosophy.
A sound understanding of this text is fundamental for any student of philosophy and Western thought writ large — whether you agree with Plato or not.
It is in the Republic that we find Plato's ethical education of the philosopher king for the sake of the good order of the polis. Maintaining the good order of the polis in turn serves the purpose of upholding the good order of the cosmos.
All lectures for this course were recorded in Athens with a view of the Acropolis and in Delphi in front of Apollo’s Temple.
“The object of education is to teach us to love what is beautiful.”
What You Will Learn in this Course
In this course, we will read and discuss the most significant ideas of Plato’s Politeia.
We will discuss Plato’s notion of “justice,” the education of the philosopher kings, the theory of the soul, the theory of forms, the three castes, the analogies of the Sun and the Line, the Myth of the Cave, the Anacyclosis of forms of government, the significance of Beauty, the Idea of the Good, and the Vision of Er.
We will consider the more esoteric side of Plato as well. Yet the main focus is on a sound metaphysical reading of Plato. In order to gain an original understanding of Plato we have to understand that Plato himself was not a Platonist.
The Local Spirit of Athens
All lectures for this course were filmed in Athens and Delphi. Here you can see what most lectures will look like. With the Parthenon behind me the spirit of Plato rises and stretches across the millennia.
Greetings from Plato's Academy in Athens
Course Curriculum
All lectures for this course were recorded in Athens with a view of the Acropolis and in Delphi in front of Apollo’s Temple.
- Katabasis: Welcome to the Path - Begin here (Readings) (12:24)
- Plato 1 The Emergence of the Polis (41:20)
- Plato 2 The Guardians of the Polis (34:07)
- Plato 3 The Soul and the Four Aretai (70:06)
- Plato 4 Dialectics and the Philosopher's Reign (13:05)
- Plato 5 The Analogies of the Sun and the Line (63:47)
- Plato 6 The Myth of the Cave (44:15)
- Plato 7 Periagoge and Paideia — Forming the Philosopher (45:49)
- Plato 8 The Dialectics of Justice (33:42)
- Plato 9 On Mimesis and Banning the Poets (72:36)
- Plato 10 Anabasis: The Vision of Er (23:23)
Your Teacher:
Dr. Johannes A. Niederhauser
Johannes has a PhD in philosophy from Warwick University (2018; pass without corrections).
He is founder and president of Halkyon Guild & Academy.
His research and thinking is devoted to deep memory and delivering over that memory into the future. He has been reading Greek philosophy for more than two decades in the original Greek.
In 2021 Springer Science published his book “Heidegger on Death and Being.”