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Plato and Democracy

Democracy Is Sick

Amy Pollard reads Plato’s Republic as a reform document.

Imagine a gym with unisex locker rooms. Imagine a daycare center that your kids can never leave. Imagine a dating service that randomly matches you with a partner (yet the dating service is secretly rigged by the state). Imagine such a world, and you’re imagining yourself in Plato’s republic.

If you’re having trouble taking Plato seriously at this point, you are not alone – his fellow Athenians also thought the social measures he suggested in The Republic were nothing short of ridiculous.

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