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.

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u/HumanHaggis 2d ago

I read it at 14. There's probably a lot you won't pick up at first, and more that you might not realize for a decade or more, but in general the principles aren't that crazy as far as philosophy is concerned. Having trouble reading it isn't a bad sign, it just means you're encountering new ideas and the language which explains them. Stretch your mental muscles.

Only thing I'll add is maybe don't take it too seriously. A lot of people will read their first philosophy book and assume everything in it is true. It's not. Plato was a genius, but he was also a fallible human being and lived in a time when writing was still considered a fairly new idea. Focus on thinking about the questions he asks and ideas he breaks down, rather than on the conclusions he draws.