/lit/ - Literature

Is Plato overrated?

Did this guy just spew out what Socrates taught? Is there any proof that he didn't just take credit for much of Socrates' philosophy that were supposedly his original ideas?

Xenophobes was probably the better student and philosopher. Too bad we will never know for sure.

ITT: Trivialize a philosopher's thought using the word 'muh.'

>muh forms

Gyges can do no wrong with impunity. But we cannot.

We are told that crime does not pay. But is this true? Suppose it is false.

Can we still make a case for being just and refraining from crime?

What is the best introduction to philosophy?

>>5451142
>>5451147
>>5451142
>>5451131

Plato was not a fascist you ignorant fucks, have you people even read the Republic?

The Republic is clearly outlined to be a Timocrasy , it is not based on any idea of "one people", a "country" or "race". Instead it is ruled by Philosophers and the whole of the state exist to sustain them,since only they can contemplate the Good and Justice. Because of this formation,castes exist to manage the stability of the Republic but not it's overgrowing in anything apart from it's limits(aka Athens and Rome). The biggest deference from the classical notion of tyranny and oligarchy (the kind Nietzsche fapped to) was that the rulers gained nothing and had no interest in ruling apart from the fruits of philosophy itself.

Furthermore Plato did not believe in any form of racialism. Aristotle does indeed seem closer to a biological explanation of intelligence and power, but Plato goes out of his way to prove that slaves have the same intelligence as free people and that women should be given political power.

True, he excludes barbarians from his republic but this exclusion was a typical xenophobic Greek reaction to any culture that did not speak the Greek language.