Should I read Phaedo or The Republic?
>>24687613Both and all the rest of Plato
>>24687672Which should you read first?
>>24687750No, I am retarded and can only fit one book in my brain total.
>>24687750I think Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo is the standard order for an introduction to Plato. Many more you could read before getting to Republic, but I get that's not for everyone. The Laws is his best dialogue though
>>24687613negation_of_taco_girl.ping
I bought a Romanian translation of The Republic from a train station and it's translated like an old fairy tale, with tenses barely anyone uses anymore and all other types of regionalisms and archaisms. Really upset me
>>24687875>Gets upset when the hegelian witch wants to talk to him
>>24687613I don't understand why anons on this board are so scared to just give a book a go. Neither is a direct sequel to the other and neither will "spoil" what happens in the other one either. Just read one.
>>24688039This. The Republic is much longer, if length is a factor, but if you must read one, just bite the bullet and read one. Flip a coin if you have to.
>>24687875Yeah this is why I started reading all my books in English.
>>24688049Doesn't work either. In some Dostoevsky translations, the plural polite second person pronoun is translated as "you sirs", which definitely doesn't fit the speech of a countryside functionary
>>24687613Phaedo first. But there are some things in the Phaedo you will only be able to understand after you have read the Republic.
>>24688047I half-suspect that what the anons who make these threads are really looking for is just a discussion about either book, but are, for some reason, unable to properly formulate their desires into an opening post, so just settle with this awkward question instead.
>>24687613republic, barnes and noble edition
>>24688305Why this edition specifically
>>24689398It has helpful footnotes and a good introduction to introduce you to Plato in general that doesn't spoil anything. I started with it, then I read Trial and Death, then all the considered 'early' dialogues, then middle, then the late ones and finish with Laws. Also some of the possibly spurious ones are worth reading, like Alcibiades I & II, 7th Letter, etc.A reason you might want to start with other dialogues is they can be much shorter and you can finish some of them in one sitting, like Euthyphro or Apology. You can almost read half of Plato's dialogues in the same time it would take you to read the Republic so it can be a slog. My advice is to start with the B&E version since it's aimed at beginners and has footnotes, and remember the Republic is 10 books, so if you get burnt out you can just pause and try reading another dialogue, then go back.
