PHL 244 - Plato’s Republic

Course Units: 1

(Winter; Scheiter) Most people care deeply about justice and strive to live just lives. But what is justice and why should we try to be just? What if we always do the right thing, but we are constantly treated badly and as if we are untrustworthy? Should we be just even if others think we are dishonest and corrupt? Is justice worth pursuing for itself? If justice is good how do we make our cities and our fellow citizens just? What kind of ruler would make a city just? In this course we will try to answer these questions as we work our way through Plato’s most famous work, Republic. Each class will be organized around specific question(s). We will focus most of our attention on analyzing and interpreting Plato’s answer to these questions, but we will also try to answer these questions ourselves and see whether or not we agree with Plato. CC: HUM