R0 Plato's Republic, or: How to Stop a Civil War
Ancient Greece Declassified
Dr. Lantern Jack
4.8 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 16 November 2020
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A foundational text in both ethics and political thought, the Republic was shaped by Plato's traumatic experiences as a young man witnessing civil war and the collapse of Athenian democracy. This is the first installment in an 11-part series on this classic work.
The episode has four parts, beginning at the following time-stamps:
0:22 Introduction to the work and to the series
8:50 Historical Background
25:25 Contents and Structure of the Republic
49:45 Conclusion: Irony and Foreboding
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, thanks for tuning in to ancient Greece declassified. |
| 0:13.3 | Episode R0. |
| 0:16.3 | Introduction to Plato's Republic. |
| 0:21.5 | We live in an age of great paradoxes. |
| 0:25.5 | Never before have so many people around the world wanted democracy. |
| 0:29.7 | And yet, the major democratic powers in recent years seem to be possessed by increasingly |
| 0:34.2 | anti-democratic forces. |
| 0:36.7 | The world is more connected than ever before. |
| 0:39.5 | At the same time, we've never been so divided. |
| 0:43.2 | The social platforms that we hoped would bring us together |
| 0:46.1 | have separated us into opposing factions. |
| 0:50.1 | Our information networks are used to spread fake news. |
| 0:54.3 | There have never been more experts on every conceivable topic than there are now. |
| 0:59.1 | And yet our policymakers seem to be listening to the wrong people, often with disastrous results. |
| 1:04.7 | If you look at all the progress we've made, we've never been closer to creating a peaceful, prosperous world. |
| 1:13.6 | And yet, we're angry and seem hell-bent on tearing our societies apart. |
| 1:16.6 | What is happening to our world? |
| 1:19.6 | A lot of people are asking that question right now. |
| 1:21.6 | A lot of people are worried about the future. |
| 1:24.6 | Are we headed towards a civil war? That question was unthinkable just a few years ago. |
| 1:31.7 | Now, every major news outlet in America has explored it. The Atlantic dedicated an entire monthly |
| 1:38.2 | issue last year to the question, how to stop a civil war. The New Yorker is currently running a series |
... |
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