by Peter Kreeft
I selected this book based on Mater Amabilis™ recommendations in the beta high school plans for Government. Kansas Dad skimmed it and thought it was a fine book on the Republic.
First of all, though the dust cover for this book looks a little odd to me, not as well-designed as one might hope, the book itself is bound well and with good quality paper.
The formatting is awkward, though. Translations from The Republic are in bold, which is fine, but there's no indication in the text of who the speakers are. Because the dialog alternates between Socrates and other speakers and between different points of view (even from the same speaker), the formatting does not allow a reader to clearly understand who is speaking and how what they're saying relates to the rest of the text. I feel like a clearer formatting would do much to clarify a difficult text for a reader new to philosophical thinking.
In at least two places, I found the wording so confusing I could only conclude some text was accidentally left out. In one particularly egregious place, the missing word "not" flipped the entire meaning of the sentence. I'm glad I read ahead and had a philosopher-theologian at hand (Kansas Dad) to confirm my suspicions and help me adjust the text before First Son read it.
Peter Kreeft's style often does not appeal to me. Many of his metaphors and examples make me feel like I want to roll my eyes. For example, he explains one of the ideas using two cavemen, Og and Glog. The whole story seemed ridiculous, maybe even childish, but First Son (in tenth grade) enjoyed it and found it helpful.
If you like Peter Kreeft's style and are interested in Plato and Socrates, you may find this book helpful. I'd recommend you try to find a revised edition of it, if they ever release one. I had already decided my younger children wouldn't read it in high school even before the new Mater Amabilis™ high school plans were posted this past summer. First Son is working through a truncated version of the new Government plans, in order to finish in two years instead of three or four, and they are much better.
I have received nothing in exchange for this post. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links. I purchased this book new.
