Politeia

, or

Republic

, is Plato's best-known and most influential dialogue. In fact,

Republic

is considered by many scholars to be the foundational text of the Western philosophical tradition. This enormous dialogue was probably completed in Plato's mature middle-period. Ancient copies of

Republic

filled ten papyrus scrolls, and even today – after twenty-three centuries – most editions of the dialogue retain this division into ten books. The whole work is comprised of a number of shorter conversations between Socrates and various interlocutors. These discourses – all related to the primary inquiry into the nature of justice or righteousness – investigate the social dimension of human existence, the characteristics of a good society, the expertise required of a leader, the nature…

2533 words

Citation: Wood, Kelsey. "Politeia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 September 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13446, accessed 19 March 2024.]

13446 Politeia 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.