PHILOSOPHY AND CULTURE IN BOOK ONE OF PLATO’S REPUBLIC

According to the twentieth century German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer, a philosophical text always arises as a response to a question; so, an important principle to keep in mind when interpreting a philosophical text is to read it in light of the question to which that text is a response. For Plato’s Republic, for example, the questions posed are questions of justice and of the nature of virtue, or the overall ‘best-ness’ of an individual