The Republic

In perhaps the most influential work of philosophy ever written, Socrates and his companions set out to define justice and, in doing so, design an ideal city ruled by philosopher-kings. Along the way Plato explores education, art, the nature of the soul, and the famous Allegory of the Cave, in which prisoners mistake shadows for reality. Ranging across politics, ethics, metaphysics, and the meaning of the good life, the Republic asks how we should live and how society should be ordered. Endlessly debated for over two thousand years, it stands at the foundation of Western political thought and remains essential reading for anyone who wonders what a just world would look like.