The Republic

Recommended by Susanna Siegel, Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy

I have found this book comes alive to students much more easily if you give space to the interpersonal dynamics between the characters. Take Socrates: Are his statements of humility sincere, or is he a jerk on a power trip? These questions don’t pertain directly to what he’s saying, when you take his words at face value. But if you make space for such questions in discussing the book, you make it possible to see the interface between a person and a point of view. This is a way of giving full weight to the points of view. They allow a reader not only to think about the position, but to picture what it might be like actually to believe these things and to act on them unthinkingly, by habit.