The Humanities Index

Book Five of Plato’s Republic addresses the role of women in the republic. Socrates narrates this dialogue, while Glaucon plays the role of interlocutor. Since their talk concerns women, the issues of love, procreation, and ability seem to be their primary focus. Yet, before the topic of women can begin, Socrates must address, even if briefly, [...]

Plato’s Gorgias addresses the question of rhetoric: is rhetoric an art or a knack? During the course of the dialectic, other issues relating to rhetoric are examined: whether it is worse to suffer evil or to cause evil, the responsibility of people in power, the relation of pleasure and pain to good and evil, what constitutes [...]

In Book X of the Republic, Plato states: “all poetical imitations are ruinous to the understanding of the hearers, and that the knowledge of their true nature is the only anidote to them.” Plato believed that imitation of sensible objects removed the poet, and the observer, from truth and reality by inspiring the emotions of [...]

Phaedrus addresses rhetoric and right living and closes with a discussion of writing — all springing from the topic of love.