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Podcast: New Books in Ancient History
Episode: On Plato's "The Republic"
Description: Imagine you could start from scratch and create the ideal city. How would you design it? Who would be in charge? This thought experiment was explored almost 2,400 years ago in the Republic, a text written by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. Plato poses this hypothetical in order to get a deeper understanding of justice and human behavior and what it would look like to create a more just society. Demetra Kasimis is an assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. She teaches on democratic theory and the history of political thought, particularly in classical Athens. See m...