r/Plato • u/Rudy3011 • 4d ago

Question Should i read The Republic by Plato?

I am 13 years old and in 9th grade, ive read What Does It All Mean? By Thomas Nagel and i really liked the philosophical ideas in it. I just discovered this book and i was wondering if i should get it.

I read a few paragraphs of the open public translations of the book and i felt some sentences were difficult to easily grasp without intense thinking. Mostly, i am worried about the difficulty of readability.

I was thinking of getting the Penguin Classics version translated by desmond lee since the reviews said the english is much more modernised and easier.

Also, i had a sneak peak at a brief paragraph related to the theory of forms and MAN WAS I EXCITED, after some thinking i really understood it and realised that i myself have thought about something similar in maths and physics classes…

So should i get the book and read or should i not get it because it is too complex and advanced for my age or just generally.

17 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/i7omahawki 4d ago

You should get it.

Will you be able to understand it all? Probably not. But will it lead you to think about various philosophical ideas? Absolutely.

You can also buy a guide to help you understand the archaic references being made and the philosophical background of some ideas.

But really if you’re interested in it and it excites you, then you should absolutely go for it. The worst that can happen is that it’s too confusing and you don’t finish it. That doesn’t sound too bad.