Plato’s Republic: On the Poets – Lessons For Investors

Via Investing In The Classics Please note that for the purposes of this analysis, I use the Allan Bloom translation of Plato’s The Republic. Please refer to a previous analysis on which I build upon here. Ever since Plato banished poets from his ideal city in the Republic, hostility towards the arts has been endemic to philosophy. To a large extent, this is because philosophy and the various art forms were perceived to be competing sources of knowledge and belief. Indeed, Socrates acknowledges this stating “there is an old quarrel between philosophy and poetry” (Book X, 607c). Plato was concerned…