Reddit Reddit reviews The Republic and Other Works

We found 2 Reddit comments about The Republic and Other Works. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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The Republic and Other Works
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2 Reddit comments about The Republic and Other Works:

u/Spu · 2 pointsr/books

The Republic and Other Works by Plato
Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
God's Equation by Amir D. Aczel
The Mind's I by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett
*Shakespeare's Sonnets by Stephen Booth

u/mrselkies · 2 pointsr/coolguides

Alright I wrote a bit about the first three. They took me a while so I'll post these now and I'll edit in any more that I do later.

"Meaning of Life" or, more accurately, how to live according to certain doctrines of philosophy

Platonism - This is a strange word to use in this context, as platonism either refers to Plato's philosophy as a whole, which talks about a lot more than just how one ought to live, or Plato's central idea that there exists two realms of existence: the visible world containing all with which we interact directly and the intelligible realm containing the true, most "good" versions of everything, which he calls the Forms. If one were to live life according to Plato's teachings, "learn more" wouldn't be entirely wrong, per se, but it'd be a disservice to Plato to stop there. To live the best life according to Plato is to strive to not only reach as close as possible to the true Forms of the intelligible realm, but also to spread that information to others. One must, according to Plato, overcome the ignorance that life seems to naturally guide us towards and instead push through towards the truth, and follow that up by returning to those who are guided into ignorance and show them the truth. This concept is represented in Plato's famous Allegory of the Cave - a good, short, easy to understand video explaining it is this one. If I were to put Plato's teachings back into a short blurb about how to live so it'd fit into a picture like OP, it'd be something like "be unrelentingly open-minded and zealous." Even that doesn't do Plato total justice and there's so much more to his philosophy than just this, like all of his works containing the teachings of Socrates. Further reading: The Republic, Apology, Euthyphro

Aristotelianism - Aristotle is famous for his work on many, many different things within philosophy, but within the context of how one ought to live one's life, his central idea was virtue ethics. For Aristotle's virtue ethics, there are a number of characteristics a person can possess and for each one, there is an excess in it and a deficiency in it which are equally detrimental to one's excellence and should be avoided. For example, let's take bravery as a characteristic. If someone isn't brave enough, they're a coward. If someone is too brave, they're rash. Aristotle says that someone who has mastered bravery, that is someone who has neither a deficiency nor an excess in this trait and is therefore achieving virtue, has successfully reached the golden mean. The golden mean is the middle, most excellent version of a trait between the deficiency and the excess. Any trait, no matter what it is, can be a vice instead of a virtue and in order for it to be a virtue one must be capable of exercising just the right amount of that trait. A deficiency in generousness makes someone selfish while an excess of it makes them frivolous. One who is striving towards the golden mean in all aspects of his character is living virtuously. As far as actually getting to the golden mean, Aristotle held that habit is the key; one who does brave things will become brave, one who does selfish things will become selfish, etc. So, to live life according to Aristotle's teachings is to habitualize actions which bring one closer to the golden mean in one's characteristics. In this sense, "be good," like Plato's blurb, isn't totally off but it doesn't do Aristotelian virtue ethics justice. Further reading: Nicomachean Ethics

Cynicism - Cynicism is something I've never studied or even heard of within the context of philosophy. A quick google search showed me that it was once a philosophy that was extremely different from what we consider to be cynicism today. All I'll say about cynicism is that the OP image is obviously giving it its modern definition, based on the blurb it gave it, which is hilarious, and the fact that the blurb itself is "be self-sufficient" is even more hilarious. Modern cynicism is about distrusting the authenticity or "genuineness" of others, instead assuming that people do things selfishly or, more simply, for the wrong reasons. It also encompasses a great deal of pessimism. It's literally just edginess. Cynicism doesn't belong anywhere near a discussion about how to live; the cynic is in the next room mocking the people in the discussion.