Can someone explain to me what Plato's Republic is in a nutshell?

Question

I would greatly appreciate it if someone could tell me what The Republic of Plato is in a nut shell. I'm going to be reading it this year, but Plato is way above my level, and I'm not sure if I can handle low grades again... So....help? Please?

Answer 1

Plato's Republic is a lecture or discussion between Socratees and his students that Plato happened to write down. It is a discussion about just and justice, and about what is the best of humanity of living in a community where all polliticians are philosophers and children are brought up by the community instead of parents, and keep that coomunity away from everybody, but what happenes when one person decids to leave the "cave? the community and see that there is more to life. Is it just for the leaders to tell what is the best or should they let the community discover what is the best for them. It is almost like Karl Marx Vs. Democracy.  

Answer 2

Here's a brief intro from Wikipedia that I think does a pretty good job of giving a summary.

The Republic (Greek: Πολιτεία / Politeía, meaning "political system;" Latin: Res Publica, meaning "public business") is a Socratic dialogue by Plato, written in approximately 360 BC. It is one of the most influential works of philosophy and political theory, and arguably Plato's best known work. In it, Socrates and various other Athenians and foreigners discuss the meaning of justice and whether the just man is happier than the unjust man by constructing an imaginary city. This city will be ruled by philosopher-kings, and so the dialogue also treats the nature of the philosopher, the forms, the conflict between philosophy and poetry, and the immortality of the soul.

Answer 3

Basically plato asks 1: What is justice. And he concludes that justice is doing good to improve stuff. He then establishes that a perfect city is one ruled by philosophers who know truth. Plato asks what is truth? He concludes that truth is knowledge of the forms which are prior to all sensation and are the ideals of the material things we experience everyday.  Then basically he details how govs. resolve themselves from his perfect gov. to the gov. based on honor to aristocracy and then to democracy and finally monarchy.  That's really all.