Plato's Republic

"I strongly recommend reading Badiou's amusing, erudite, and intelligent book." -Consciousness, Literature and the Arts "Badiou's translation of Plato follows the ancient habit of pre-copyright times: it freely changes the original to make it fit to contemporary conditions. So instead of sophists we get corrupted journalists, instead of soul we get the subject, and instead of Plato's critique of democracy we get... well, a critique of today's democracy. The result is a resounding triumph: Plato comes fully alive as our contemporary, as someone who directly addresses our issues. This, not aseptic scholarly work, is the mark of a true fidelity to our past." -Slavoj Zizek "Here is something really remarkable: a complete re-imagining of the founding text of philosophy This book calls itself a hyper-translation, but it is also a repetition with a difference, an utterly contemporary transposition and even sublimation of Plato's Republic. It is always our task to breathe life into the ancients. They feed on our blood. Badiou shows himself a master of vampirism." -Simon Critchley, New School for Social Research, New York "What Badiou's translation of Plato leaves us with is a resounding passion for the truth. It leaves us with a rare sense that politics can once again be associated with courage and justice, and that we have an agency at our disposal that comes in the passionate work of bringing the idea of equality (communism) into existence." -Berfrois

Alain Badiou is the Emeritus Professor in Philosophy at the Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris. He is probably the most widely read and influential philosopher in France today.

Introduction by Kenneth Reinhard Translator's Preface Author's Preface to the English Edition Preface Characters Prologue: Conversation in the Villa on the Harbor (327a-336b) 1 Reducing the Sophist to Silence (336b-357a) 2 The Young Men's and Women's Pressing Questions (357a-368d) 3 The Origins of Society and the State (368d-376c) 4 The Disciplines of the Mind: Literature and Music (376c-403c) 5 The Disciplines of the Body: Nutrition, Medicine and Physical Education (403c-412c) 6 Objective Justice (412c-434d) 7 Subjective Justice (434d-449a) 8 Women and Families (449a-471c) 9 What is a Philosopher? (471c-484b) 10 Philosophy and Politics (484b-502c) 11 What is an Idea? (502c-521c) 12 From Mathematics to the Dialectic (521c-541b) 13 Critique of the Four Pre-communist Systems of Government: 1. Timocracy and Oligarchy (541b-555b) 14 Critique of the Four Pre-Communist Systems of Government: 2. Democracy and Tyranny (555b-573b) 15 Justice and Happiness (573b-592b) 16 Poetry and Thought (592b-608b) Epilogue: The Mobile Eternity of Subjects (608b-end) Notes Index