What Plato’s Republic Has to Say About Being a Man

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 1 June 2021

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Editor’s Note: This is a re-broadcast. This episode originally aired in April 2019. Plato’s Republic is a seminal treatise in Western political philosophy and thought. It hits on ideas that we’re still grappling with in our own time, including the nature of justice and what the ideal political system looks like. But my guest today argues that The Republic also has a lot to say about manliness, character development, and education in our current climate of safe spaces and trigger warnings. His name is Jacob Howland. He’s a professor of philosophy at the University of Tulsa and the author of the recent book Glaucon’s Fate: History, Myth, and Character in Plato’s Republic. We begin our conversation with an outline of Plato’s Republic and how it combines literature and philosophy. Jacob then makes the case that in The Republic, Socrates was attempting to save the soul of Plato’s politically ambitious brother, Glaucon, and why he thinks Socrates failed. Along the way we discuss what Socrates’ attempt to save Glaucon can teach us about andreia or manliness and what it means to seek the Good in life. We end our conversation discussing the way The Republic teaches us of the need to possess not only physical courage, but the courage to think for oneself and stand up for one’s beliefs — a courage that is tested in a time like our own, where it can feel difficult to ask hard questions and wrestle with thorny issues. Get the show notes at aom.is/republic.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Brett. It is Memorial Day here in the United States. We're taking a vacation to
0:03.3	spend time with our family, eat some hamburgers. So we're doing a rebroadcast here of episode
0:06.8	number 496, what Plato's Republic has to say about being a man. It's what an interview
0:11.8	idea with Professor Jacob Howland back in 2019, one of our most popular episodes ever.
0:16.6	Hope you enjoyed. We'll be back on Wednesday with a new episode. See you then.
0:20.3	Brett McCay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.
0:31.8	Plato's Republic is a symbol treat us in western political philosophy and thought.
0:35.7	It hits an idea as we're still grappling with in our own time, including the nature of justice
0:39.6	and what the ideal political system looks like. But my guest today argues that the Republic
0:43.4	also has a lot to say about manliness, character development, and education in our current climate
0:48.1	of safe spaces and trigger warnings. His name is Jacob Howland. He's a professor philosophy at the
0:52.1	University of Tulsa and the author of the recent book, Glaucom's Fate, History, Myth, and Character
0:56.7	in Plato's Republic. We begin our conversation with an outline of Plato's Republic and how it combines
1:00.9	literature and philosophy. Jacob then makes the case that in the Republic, Socrates was attempting
1:05.2	to save the soul of Plato's politically ambitious brother Glaucom and why he thinks Socrates failed.
1:10.2	Along the way, we discuss what Socrates' attempt to save Glaucom can teach us about Andrea
1:14.1	of Manliness and what it means to seek the good in life. We enter conversation discussing the way
1:18.3	the Republic teaches us the need to possess not only physical courage, but the courage to think
1:22.4	for oneself and Senate for one beliefs, courage that is tested in a time like your own where it can
1:26.5	feel difficult to ask hard questions and wrestle with thorny issues. After the show's over,
1:30.8	check out the show notes at a-wim.is-slash-republic. Jacob Howland, welcome to the show.
1:46.8	It's great to be here, Bret. It's an honor and a pleasure to be talking with you today.
	...

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