Understanding Plato

Nov 22 2021 30

Understanding Plato Podcast artwork

Do you need help understanding the great books of philosophy? In his podcasts, Professor Laurence Houlgate reads and discusses the classic works of Plato, Thomas Hobbes, Rene Descartes, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, and David Hume. His short readings are based on his acclaimed Smart Student's Guides to Philosophical Classics series (learn more at www.houlgatebooks.com). The episodes begin with the dialogues of Plato and will continue week by week through each chapter of Understanding Plato. For those who want to read along, a digital or print copy of the book can be purchased at Amazon.com at this address: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I5GAIJI
New episodes will usually be broadcast weekly on Monday evening at 5 p.m. PST.

Subscribe on Podcast Addict

Republic Book IX EP 22 (Final Episode) Tyranny and the Tyrannical Soul

Nov 22 2021 25 mins

We have come to the end of Plato's Republic and the end of the podcast. In the final episode, Socrates satisfies Glaucon's challenge to show that a just state is always preferable to an unjust state and being a just person is always better than being unjust. He has previously described the just and unjust governments (kingship and aristocracy) and corresponding souls. Socrates now

Republic Bk VIII & IX EP 21 Defective Constitutions and Damaged Souls

Nov 15 2021 20 mins

Plato extends his analogy between the constitution of the city-state and the soul of the individual by presenting a theory about how the constitutions slowly devolve from the ideal (kingship or aristocracy) to the most imperfect (tyranny) and how this is mirrored by the slow degradation of the soul.

Republic Book VII EP 20 Allegory of the Cave

Nov 08 2021 15 mins

Plato's Allegory of the Cave is one of the most famous thought experiments in the history of Western philosophy. An allegory is "a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one" (Oxford). The question asked by Plato scholars and repeated here is "What meaning is most consistent with the moral and political ideas promo

Republic Bk VI, VII EP 19 Analogy of the Sun

Nov 01 2021 16 mins

Socrates tells Glaucon that philosophers should be kings because only they have access to the Form (concept) of the Good. The concept of Justice cannot be understood unless one understands its relationship with the Form of the Good. In order to explain this relationship, Socrates turns to an analogy -- the Sun and the power of the sun to shed light on things and make them visible.

Republic Bk.VI EP 18 Only Philosophers Should be Kings

Oct 25 2021 18 mins

This episode begin with Socrates' astounding claim that "only philosophers should be kings." However, he soon qualifies this with the remark that he does not mean philosopher in name only. He means philosophers who have a specific kind of knowledge that he calls "knowledge of the form Good." The remainder of this episode is a journey through the distinction between forms (concepts)

Republic Book V EP 17 Women, Marriage and Children in the Ruling Class

Oct 18 2021 17 mins

Socrates argues in defense of his recommendation that women can and should be rulers in the ideal state. His argument is that there is nothing relevant about women that would prevent them from ruling. Second, he says that male and female rulers should be prevented from marrying or having a permanent sexual relationship with another member of the ruling class because this would make

Republic Book IV (cont.) EP 16 Humunculi, Self-Control and Injustice

Oct 11 2021 23 mins

This episode is a discussion of the concluding paragraphs of Republic, Book IV. It is about the question "Why do we need a theory to explain self-control?" Socrates would answer this by saying "Because we need to show how one and the same person can control his or her appetites or emotions." Socrates introduces the theory of a tripartite soul. We can control ourselves only if there

Republic Bk. IV (cont.) EP 15 The Theory of Parts of the Soul and the Humunculus Problem

Oct 04 2021 16 mins

If Socrates is to convince Glaucon that justice and injustice in the soul is like justice and injustice in the city-state, then he must prove that there are parts of the soul analogous to the three classes of the city-state. Socrates believes he can do this by using the Principle of Opposites. But having made his point he runs into another question: Is each part of the soul an enti

Republic Book IV EP 14 The Advantages of Justice in City and Soul

Sep 27 2021 17 mins

Socrates takes the first steps toward discovering the meaning of justice in the city-state and the place in the city where it is most likely to be found. He puts forward two analogical arguments to prove that justice is found in the city only when there is an agreement between all classes of the city is founded on the principle of natural division of labor. Each person practices on

Republic Book II EP13 Glaucon's Challenge

Sep 22 2021 31 mins

Glaucon asks Socrates if he can provide a defense of justice (right conduct) that will show not only that justice is good for the sake of its consequences but it is good in and of itself. In one of the most famous parts of Book II, Glaucon presents the myth of Gyges ring -- the ring of invisibility. Socrates must show that a just person would never use the ring to make himself invi