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Plato's Republic
- Books That Changed the World
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hrs and 13 mins
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Publisher's summary
In Plato's Republic, Simon Blackburn explains the judicial, moral, and political ideas in The Republic. Blackburn also examines The Republic's remarkable influence and unquestioned staying power, and shows why, from Saint Augustine to 20th-century philosophers, such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Henri Bergson, Western thought is still conditioned by this most important of books.
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Critic reviews
" Plato's Republic...is loaded with perennial questions that every generation must struggle with." ( The Independent)
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Already a classic, this landmark study of early Western thought now appears in a new edition with expanded coverage of the Middle Ages. Author Anthony Gottlieb looks afresh at the writings of the great thinkers, questions much of conventional wisdom, and explains his findings with unbridled brilliance and clarity. From the pre-Socratic philosophers through the celebrated days of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, up to Renaissance visionaries like Erasmus and Bacon, philosophy emerges here as a phenomenon unconfined by any one discipline.
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Bias spoils the work.
- By MC on 08-21-20
By: Anthony Gottlieb
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Plato's Republic
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The Republic poses questions that endure: What is justice? What form of community fosters the best possible life for human beings? What is the nature and destiny of the soul? What form of education provides the best leaders for a good republic? What are the various forms of poetry and the other arts, and which ones should be fostered and which ones should be discouraged? How does knowing differ from believing?
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BEWARE: shortened version
- By Dranu on 03-08-20
By: Plato
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The Life of the Mind
- By: Hannah Arendt
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 20 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Considered by many to be Hannah Arendt's greatest work, published as she neared the end of her life, The Life of the Mind investigates thought itself, as it exists in contemplative life. In a shift from her previous writings, most of which focus on the world outside the mind, this work was planned as three volumes that would explore the activities of the mind considered by Arendt to be fundamental. What emerged is a rich, challenging analysis of human mental activity, considered in terms of thinking, willing, and judging.
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English only please
- By angela cozea on 11-20-19
By: Hannah Arendt
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Deep Thought
- 42 Fantastic Quotes That Define Philosphy
- By: Gary Cox
- Narrated by: Richard Mitchley
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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As Douglas Adams points out, if there is no final answer to the question "what is the meaning of life?" 42 is as good or bad an answer as any other. Indeed, 42 quotes might be even better! Gary Cox guides us through 42 of the most misunderstood, misquoted, provocative, and significant quotes in the history of philosophy, providing witty and compelling commentary along the way.
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Best philosophy intro ever
- By Fabian on 04-14-18
By: Gary Cox
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The Hedgehog and the Fox (Second Edition)
- An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History
- By: Isaiah Berlin, Henry Hardy - editor, Michael Ignatieff - foreword
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 2 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." This ancient Greek aphorism, preserved in a fragment from the poet Archilochus, describes the central thesis of Isaiah Berlin's masterly essay on Leo Tolstoy and the philosophy of history, the subject of the epilogue to War and Peace. Although there have been many interpretations of the adage, Berlin uses it to mark a fundamental distinction between human beings who are fascinated by the infinite variety of things and those who relate everything to a central, all-embracing system.
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The Fox Who Tried To Be A Hedgehog
- By Rich S. on 12-14-21
By: Isaiah Berlin, and others
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The Givenness of Things
- Essays
- By: Marilynne Robinson
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The spirit of our times can appear to be one of joyless urgency. As a culture we have become less interested in the exploration of the glorious mind, and more interested in creating and mastering technologies that will yield material well-being. But while cultural pessimism is always fashionable, there is still much to give us hope.
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Mostly thoughts on religious things
- By Adam Shields on 01-26-16
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The Dream of Enlightenment
- The Rise of Modern Philosophy
- By: Anthony Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Anthony Gottlieb
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Dream of Enlightenment, Anthony Gottlieb expertly navigates a second great explosion of thought, taking us to northern Europe in the wake of its wars of religion and the rise of Galilean science. In a relatively short period - from the early 1640s to the eve of the French Revolution - Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark. The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy.
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Enlightenment meets Neuroscience
- By Rodger on 12-05-19
By: Anthony Gottlieb
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Nature's God
- The Heretical Origins of the American Republic
- By: Matthew Stewart
- Narrated by: Michael Quinlan
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Where did the ideas come from that became the cornerstone of American democracy? Not only the erudite Thomas Jefferson, the wily and elusive Ben Franklin, and the underappreciated Thomas Paine, but also Ethan Allen, the hero of the Green Mountain Boys, and Thomas Young, the forgotten Founder who kicked off the Boston Tea Party. These radicals who founded America set their sights on a revolution of the mind. Derided as "infidels" and "atheists" in their own time, they wanted to liberate us not just from one king but from the tyranny of supernatural religion.
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Excellent exploration of this subject
- By Caroline on 01-13-15
By: Matthew Stewart
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Heretics
- By: G. K. Chesterton
- Narrated by: Ulf Bjorklund
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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"Nothing more strangely indicates an enormous and silent evil of modern society than the extraordinary use which is made nowadays of the word orthodox. In former days the heretic was proud of not being a heretic. It was the kingdoms of the world and the police and the judges who were heretics. He was orthodox. He had no pride in having rebelled against them; they had rebelled against him. The armies with their cruel security, the kings with their cold faces, the decorous processes of State, the reasonable processes of law - all these like sheep had gone astray...."
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Like having Steven Hawking read poetry
- By J. Gorton on 02-29-16
By: G. K. Chesterton
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Father Joseph is awesome!
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Not quite enough
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The Republic poses questions that endure: What is justice? What form of community fosters the best possible life for human beings? What is the nature and destiny of the soul? What form of education provides the best leaders for a good republic? What are the various forms of poetry and the other arts, and which ones should be fostered and which ones should be discouraged? How does knowing differ from believing?
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BEWARE: shortened version
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The Republic, Plato's masterwork, was first enjoyed 2,400 years ago and remains one of the most widely read books in the world. Presented as a dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and various interlocutors, it is an exhortation to philosophy, inviting its listeners to reflect on the choices to be made if we are to live the best life available to us. This complex, dynamic work creates a picture of an ideal society governed not by the desire for money, power or fame, but by philosophy, wisdom and justice.
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arguably the best philosophy book on audible
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Jowett's 1894 translation
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Long regarded as the most accurate rendering of Plato's Republic that has yet been published, this widely acclaimed translation by Allan Bloom was the first to take a strictly literal approach. In addition to the annotated text, there is also a rich and valuable essay—as well as indices—which will enable listeners to better understand the heart of Plato's intention.
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The translation by Alan Bloom
- By Anonymous User on 08-21-24
By: Allan Bloom
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- Narrated by: Father Joseph Koterski S.J.
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In this 12-lecture meditation on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, you'll uncover the clarity and ethical wisdom of one of humanity's greatest minds. Father Koterski shows how and why this great philosopher can help you deepen and improve your own thinking on questions of morality and leading the best life. The aim of these lectures is to provide you with a clear and thoughtful introduction to Aristotle as a moral philosopher.
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Not quite enough
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BEWARE: shortened version
- By Dranu on 03-08-20
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Republic
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Overall
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Performance
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The Republic, Plato's masterwork, was first enjoyed 2,400 years ago and remains one of the most widely read books in the world. Presented as a dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and various interlocutors, it is an exhortation to philosophy, inviting its listeners to reflect on the choices to be made if we are to live the best life available to us. This complex, dynamic work creates a picture of an ideal society governed not by the desire for money, power or fame, but by philosophy, wisdom and justice.
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arguably the best philosophy book on audible
- By Anonymous on 05-21-21
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What listeners say about Plato's Republic
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nicktirebiter
- 08-23-18
Fresh look at a Most Important book. Well read.
A lively, accessible look at this important book, a key entry in the Western canon of philosophy. Mr. Blackburn's book is worth reading both because of what it is and what is not - points he makes in the introduction. He makes no pretense that this is a scholarly work intended to supplant Leo Strauss or the works of any other Plato scholar. Rather, he is a smart insightful reader and takes us along with his exploration and discovery. It is worth reading as a primer if you have never read the Republic or as as a refreshed and new look if you have already studied it.
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Overall
- Forrest
- 01-15-08
Less than I expected
The commentary in this audiobook was not what I expected. I thought I was going to get a reading of Plato's "Republic" but instead this is a commentary on the book with very few quotes from the book. This audiobook is a chapter by chapter commentary by the author consisting of his interpretations of what he though Plato was trying to say. In that aspect, the commentary was reasonably good, but certainly less that a reading of Plato's book as I had expected.
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12 people found this helpful
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Overall
- J B Tipton
- 08-03-07
Not about Plato
This is not a book about Plato’s Republic. It is a collection of political, historical and philosophical musings based upon the Republic. If you are interested in the insights of author Simon Blackburn, this book is for you. If you are looking for a book about Plato’s Republic, you should seek elsewhere. The book is very well read and recorded.
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21 people found this helpful
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Overall
- M. Shults
- 08-25-08
Please hold the politics
I liked the idea, and the early part of this book, in that it's a "biography" of a book, where the author discusses the book rather than reading the book itself. With a book as old and "deep" as Republic, this seemed like a good way to get some perspective on the work. Unfortunately, as the book goes on, Blackburn increasingly abuses his readers by indulging his bitter political bias against George Bush and Neoconservatives.
Blackburn is as entitled to his arbitrary political opinions as anyone else, but not in the context of a book purporting to give an objective analysis of subject matter far removed from modern day political partisanship.
Blackburn's assertion, for example, that that the ousting of an aggressive and murderous Dictator sitting on one of the world's greatest stores of wealth in Iraq, is somehow equivalent or analogous to the Athenian Greeks putting an apparently innocent, unobtrusive neighboring city-state to the sword because they could, is not only gratuitous, it is a whopping non-sequitur.
Since the entire reason for this book, given the structure I've described above, necessarily leaves the reader to trust the author to provide an objective, reasonable analysis of the subject material at hand, Blackburn's ongoing grinding of his political axe soon had me asking whether his take on Plato and philosophy was as overtly biased and arbitrary as his needlessly imposed political views. As the frequency of political harping increased as the book went on, I turned it off, for good, about two thirds of the way through.
If you are someone who genuinely wants to concentrate on and find good and trustworthy information on the title subject, you will be distracted at best, and probably disgusted, as I was, by this author's political self-indulgence.
I would suggest that if Mr. Blackburn wishes to be a political pundit, he should advertise himself, and be accountable, as such.
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12 people found this helpful