Christians have designated the Bible as the book that they have based opinion and beliefs on ever since it was created. The Republic? Well in my opinion, it's the thinking mans bible. Obviously being the huge Christian I am, I believe that everyone should read and do their best to follow the beliefs of the bible, but you can definitely learn a lot from The Republic as well. Unlike almost any other book I can think of, The Republic made me think, so props to Plato for that at least.
But it isn't just that it makes you think, it's what it makes you think about. This book has taken some beliefs that I haven't questioned for years, or haven't had an opinion on in the first place, and completely recreated them. It has made me question the essence of justice, ideas like the "tripartite soul", and how censorship affects so many of our beliefs and customs. For crying out loud, this book has even made me think about a cave for weeks!
I will always believe the bible above all else, but nothing can be said about this book not teaching you something what so ever. Everyone can learn something from it, but to me, I can't help but keep thinking about the tripartite soul. It describes how justice would be perfect if Appetite, Reason, and Soul all did their own tasks without interfering with each other. At first, this idea seemed foreign. Justice to me had always been signified by Batman. But as the ball started to roll, I looked back at the previous year of English, realized my idea of truth had matured then, and then accepted the fact that my idea of justice could be improved as well. So like any insane person, I rolled with it.
It was worth it.
Rolling down the hill, everything started to make sense as I got closer to the end, as I went over bump after bump on the way. Perhaps it made more sense after each bump because I was repeatedly banging my head as I got closer to understanding the idea fully, but that's just a metaphor. But seriously, this topic may be tough to understand at first, but as soon as you start to understand it it becomes so much easier.
Appetite is described as physical needs such as food, money, and power. To me, this is physical things.
Reason is described as seeking things such as knowledge, wisdom, and truth. To me, this is emotional things.
Spirit is described as the part that is ambitious and competitive. To me, this is spiritual things.
Until I thought about it in depth, I couldn't really put my finger on what had caused me to attach most of my thought on this book to this one thing. But then it hit me (unlike my rolling metaphor). The tripartite soul is basically a previous version of theories that I possess on things like this. You can go check out the previous blog here. The only difference that I could possibly see is that the tripartite soul seems to be based/created by a person not so devoted to God as I am. This can be represented by the fact that this bases spirit on being not so important as I would deem it to be.
But that is why I can't get over this book, even though it has only been a handful of weeks since reading up to only chapter 7! This book makes me think hard on things I have already accepted, and the things that I seem to have the same opinion as Plato on are only strengthened by this.
Post Blog Thoughts
I would have wrote more about the cave, but I haven't processed the idea enough to put stuff down on this blog. And this only serves to further my point about this being a thinking mans book.
A slightly more detailed description of the three parts can be found here at this blog that I used as a resource:
https://smallsimple.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/the-tripartite-soul-reason-spirit-appetite/
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