About the book
Presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three different interlocutors, this classic text is an enquiry into the notion of a perfect community and the ideal individual within it.
Published 375 BCE
Philosophy
528 pages
I will not pretend I enjoyed this
March 23, 2026
I will not pretend I enjoyed this. For much of the book I couldn’t help but think: here we have the first documented case of a man living on the spectrum. Socrates pesters his friends for hours and hours, giving unsolicited opinions and asking endless questions, only so he can then have the chance to argue with their responses. Not only that, but I did not previously realize that a lot of Socrates’s ideas are actually insane. Like very authoritarian, eugenics-adjacent insane.
All that being said, I can understand at least partly why this book is such a big deal when viewed with the context of the time it was written. In a culture dominated by myth and religion, Socrates is asking bigger questions than had ever been documented. He seeking real truth rather than simply accepting the status quo. He is teaching people how to think for themselves. And then he was ultimately sentenced to death for his fight to be a deep thinker. Mad respect. Also, the allegory of the cave is good. And he was surprisingly progressive in parts about women being capable of governing and other traditionally male tasks, and the importance of balancing art and physical training.
kelsi’s reading diary 