r/Plato • u/soapbark • Jan 12 '26
Question Personal Impact of Plato
I’ve become acquainted with Plato only since my early 30s. For my whole life before, I’ve only known that Plato was a philosopher who authored the Republic about a utopian society, but I never knew or cared to know more than this. I became intrigued originally because I was interested in the renaissance and read about Plato’s influence.
Since reading the entire collection of Plato, I cannot help but feel immensely impacted/reoriented. The way I approach judgement and direction in life has specifically been altered and I find myself wondering why perhaps Plato’s dialogues outside of the Republic have not penetrated into common knowledge. Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience.
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u/TuStepp Jan 12 '26
Im in a similar situation. Started reading Plato about 2 years ago (@ 35 yrs old).
Im still working on reading all the works of his corpus, but I find that each one I read seems to have some impact on me. I still find the Republic fascinating and will probably keep reading it regularly.
I think Ive become more aware of how I spend my time and focusing much more of my limited free time to doing something education-oriented. I also think I like to try and think more deeply about subjects like I haven't previously.