The Republic was the first major work to present an argument that human reason can both guide the individual human life to happiness and order the political community to justice.

We will read the Republic with a focus on bringing together the human desire for the best life and the principles and society that seem to make such a life possible or intelligible. We will discuss the ethical, political, metaphysical, and poetic teachings and arguments which receive most attention, but we will try to interpret them to the light of the actions and reactions of Socrates and his friendly and hostile interlocutors.

In addition to its profound effect on the ancient world, and in the Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions, the Republic ultimately provided the elements for the philosophical revolution that gave birth to the Enlightenment and modernity.

However, when examined by apart from all these traditions and interpretations, the Republic may itself provide a more profound and complex understanding of the essential questions of human life that we still face today.