Plato's Republic, Books One & Two

An oral dramatization of Plato's dialogues in modern English. Professional actors play the characters of Socrates, Cephalus, Glaucon, Thrasymachus, Adeimantus, Cleitophon, and Polemarchus. Regarded as Plato's most comprehensive dialogue, The Republic treats ethics, politics, epistemology, metaphysics, and the arts. The conversation begins with attempts to define the nature of justice, centering on Thrasymachus' explanation of justice as power. Then Plato's brothers, Glaucon and Adeimantus, propose a social contract theory of values, challenging Socrates to defend justice as intrinsically good. The investigation continues in an effort to imagine a society in which true justice can be manifested.